S Africa’s ruling ANC to reexamine Electoral Amendment Bill after public outcry

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has agreed to revisit a proposed plan to change the way in which citizens elect members of Parliament after a hugeHpublic outcry and plans by civil society organisations to oppose it.

The Electoral Act Amendment Bill seeks to accommodate independent candidates without changing the current 'pure party' list system, where voters cast their ballots for a party, which then decides who goes to Parliament to represent it.

There has been widespread opposition to the party list system, which has been in place since the first democratic elections in 1994 which brought Nelson Mandela to power as South Africa's first democratically-elected President after 27 years as a political prisoner of the apartheid government.

Amid rampant corruption and concerns over inefficient service delivery by members of Parliament, calls have been mounting for a change to elect members directly to account to the public, rather than political party appointments.

Veteran senior ANC leader Snuki Zikalala, speaking on behalf of Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi who is leading the Bill process, conceded that the biggest problem that South Africans faced was a lack of accountability from Parliamentarians or local councillors.

Zikalala said the ANC was committed to making amendments to ensure that society participates actively in governance.

"The ANC as it stands now does not support the Amendment Bill and is prepared to engage with members of civil society because they are very important to the ANC,'' Zikalala said.

''In our Constitution, we make it very clear that the people shall govern, so if we don't listen to civil society, it means that we are a dictator to society and society will take us out immediately,'' he said.

Zikalala vowed to monitor the situation to ensure that the ANC meets with, serves, and accounts to society.

"We will reexamine the Electoral Bill and ensure that we say who we are in terms of representing society," Zikalala concluded. Zikalala was reacting on Saturday to the keynote address by former Minister of Constitutional Development Valli Moosa Valli at the annual lecture organised by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation in memory of the late Indian-origin freedom fighter who served just one year less than Nelson Mandela as a political prisoner before becoming a Member of Parliament under the latter.

Moosa said one of the biggest challenges facing South Africa today was that the leadership of both the ruling African National Congress (ANC), to which he belonged, as well as the Opposition, the Democratic Alliance, were failing to give serious attention to the matter of electoral reform. Several civil society organisations, including Defend our Democracy and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, have raised objections over the bill and called on MPs not to pass the legislation into law.

Civil society organisations have said that the bill does not go far enough in allowing for a mixed electoral system, that makes provision for both a single-member constituency and a proportional representation (PR) system for voters to hold politicians accountable.

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