Cosatu+pushes+for+electoral+changes,+Sunday+Times

Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 23 July 2006
=Cosatu pushes for electoral changes=


 * //Constituency-based system would stop the slide towards sycophancy, labour federation argues//**


 * MOIPONE MALEFANE**

COSATU leaders want the ANC to change the current electoral system of proportional representation in favour of a strong constituency-based system.

In its bilateral meeting with the ANC this week, the labour federation argued that the proportional representation system undermines the independent thoughts of public representatives who end up being loyal to party leadership and not the people.

The meeting held at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters was attended by among others, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who is said to have been critical of the tone of Cosatu’s critique of the ANC in its discussion documents prepared for its forthcoming conference.

The Cosatu delegation was led by the federation’s president Willy Madisha and its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

The issue of the electoral system is also contained in Cosatu’s political discussion document which is circulating among its affiliates ahead of its national congress in September.

Cosatu is proposing a system that would ensure that members of Parliament, legislatures or local government account directly to the constituencies who elected them to power. “The current system affirms the powers of the leader,” said a senior Cosatu leader.

The ANC agreed to discuss the proposal within its structures.

Cosatu wants a strong constituency element to be introduced in the electoral process at national and provincial level.

“This will promote more dynamic contact between the people and public representatives, holds the possibility of people’s views being heard, and could introduce the element of constituents more directly determining candidates.

“The current system of proportional representation also undermines independent thought as individual careers depend on those in the party leadership and the deployment committee. Unless we can achieve it soon, the movement towards sycophancy is inevitable,” its discussion paper said.

The government has so far ignored the recommendations of a task team appointed in 2002 to investigate the most suitable electoral system for South Africa.

Headed by former Progressive Federal Party leader Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, the team appointed by then Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi recommended a return to the constituency system to elect three quarters of the 400 MPs. Four of the 12 members of Slabbert’s team said in a minority report they were satisfied with the current system in which voters decided how many seats each party got and the parties decided who would fill them.

But the majority said the country should be divided into 69 constituencies, each of which would send between three and seven members to Parliament. This would endorse the core values of fairness, inclusivity, simplicity and accountability, the Idasa founder said.

The Cabinet said in 2003 that the report was too late to guide the electoral system for the 2004 election, but promised to address its proposals in preparation for the 2009 election.

Other issues that Cosatu raised during its meeting with the ANC included its concern over “the state of affairs in the ANC” and its jobs and poverty campaigns.

Both parties agreed to meet again next month. In the meantime, Cosatu leaders and members were to debate whether they understood “the character and nature of the ANC”.

· Meanwhile, the SA Communist Party in Mpumalanga has resolved that the party should contest the national elections independent of the ANC.

At its provincial congress, the SACP decided to table its resolution at the party’s national congress in July next year. SACP provincial secretary Bonakele Majuba said the SACP was not an “NGO and it should stop using the NGO approach for elections.

“We have resolved that SACP should continue contesting state power, even if it means standing on its own, given that the ANC, owing to its nature, may necessarily not be able to move to socialism in future nor may favour state control of natural resources as a solution to the future,” he said. — Additional reporting by Brendan Boyle


 * From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A196662**

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