The Democratic Alliance (DA) has proposed far-reaching changes to governance policy, including the direct election of the president, premiers and mayors.
DA leader Helen Zille told a media briefing at Parliament on Wednesday, that over the past 15 years the system had effectively empowered politicians at the expense of citizens.
This had happened mainly through the powers of provinces being weakened and more control being exerted from the centre through political deployments, and an electoral system that made no provision for a direct link between public representatives and the electorate.
Also, the ability of the ruling party to ”deploy” or ”recall” the president, premiers and mayors with no mandate from voters, and the weakening of those bodies designed to check and balance power — chiefly, the ”Chapter 9” institutions — through political appointments, control of their budgets by government departments and the absence of a clear reporting line to Parliament.
Zille said the DA’s governance policy aimed to put power back where it belonged — in the hands of voters and citizens.
Firstly, it proposed the direct election of the president, premiers and mayors.
Currently, voters had little influence over a party’s choice of candidate for executive office, with the result that people could be elected to high office based on the manipulation of networks in the ruling party rather than a direct mandate from the electorate.
”Secondly, we propose a mixed proportional representation — constituency electoral system to elect MPs and MPLs,” she said.
This would create a direct link between voters and their constituency MPs to increase accountability without destroying the principle of proportionality.
The DA suggested 75 percent of MPs (270) be elected from 90 constituencies, each of which would have three MPs, and 25 percent (90) would come from party lists and be allocated in such a way that the overall total number of MPs from each political party would be in direct proportion to that party’s share of the votes cast.
”Thirdly, we propose holding separate elections for all three spheres of government.”
Currently, because national and provincial elections were held simultaneously, provincial issues received less attention than they would if there was a separate provincial election.
An election at one level would take place every two years, on a specific date that was fixed in legislation.
The DA would increase the term limit in each sphere of government to six years — sufficient time for an administration to achieve its goals while leaving voters with regular chances to remove those that failed.
Fourthly, because federalism brought government closer to the people, acted as a defence against tyranny, accommodated diversity and promoted effective service delivery, the DA would harness the federal elements of the Constitution to bolster provincial government.
Fifthly, the DA proposed a set of measures to strengthen and depoliticise the Chapter 9 institutions designed to support constitutional democracy.
Specifically, the DA believed that ministers should play no role in making appointments to these bodies and that individuals holding a high-level position in a political party should not be eligible for appointment until one year had elapsed since they held that post.
Finally, the DA proposed the establishment of a multi-party parliamentary committee to protect the interests of the Chapter 9 institutions and address their concerns.
As many of these proposals required constitutional amendments and were not the sole prerogative of the party in power, they should be discussed and debated in Parliament at the first available opportunity, Zille said. – Sapa