What is the state of our vaunted constitutional democracy?
Well, to the extent that democracy can be defined, as the immediate past Statistician General, Pahdi Lehola did in a recent radio interview, as ‘the ability (of the people) to govern, or misgovern themselves’ then we are doing quite well.
There is clearly nobody but ourselves we can blame for the large scale misgovernance we are experiencing as a country.
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As James Russel Lowell observes, ‘Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor’.
Democracy as explained by Abraham Lincoln more than 150 years ago describes a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
How do we fare against this simple, yet powerful definition?
In my humble view, not very well, and I will explain why.
We certainly have all the trappings of a vibrant democracy: a well resourced parliament and regular well run elections, many democratic oversight institutions, such as the Public Protector, and a Constitution that we are constantly reminded is the envy of most other countries.
But scratch below the surface and the cracks begin to show. In my view, one of the biggest impediments to true democracy is the closed party list system.
This leads to a situation where, as William Gumede wrote in the Sunday Times this week ‘party leaders hand-pick pliant elected representatives’.
Often, these anointed representatives are not the preferred choice of communities or branches, leading to the chaos and violence seen at recent branch meeting of the ruling party in Limpopo.
Conversely, if the popular choice of communities do not find favour with party bosses, meetings are often summarily adjourned until the voting processes can be bulldozed by intimidation or threats.
In fairness, these incidents are not the exclusive preserve of the ruling party, and the power of senior party apparatchiks is evident among all political parties.
At a slightly higher level, the inability for most provincial conferences of the ruling party can be ascribed directly to conflict around the choice of party lists, and who is on and not on the lists, and in which position.
What of our vaunted Chapter Nine institutions that are meant to be a bulwark protecting our democracy.
Gumede again describes how these ‘watchdogs’ have been packed with ‘docile leaders’, leaving citizens unprotected against callous government and leaders.
To close, Barack Obama said of democracy ‘ …it works, but we gotta want it – not just during an election but all the days in between’.
Vijay Naidoo writes in his personal capacity as CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum.
The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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