Crooks in parliament, a president held hostage: SA needs drastic electoral reform

Events of the past week — the brazen parachuting of disgraced former Western Cape judge president John Hlophe into parliament and the protracted haggling over cabinet posts — have not only left a bitter taste in the mouth, they have highlighted the urgent need for electoral reform. Parliament, especially, runs the risk of becoming a laughing stock.

Hlophe’s case particularly sticks in the craw. That he's not in the least concerned or embarrassed by such an unseemly episode that does no favours to an important institution attests to the type of character he is. How a person of such unruly passions became not only a judge but a judge president also brings into question the manner in which judges are appointed.

By his telling, Hlophe had paid Jacob Zuma a casual visit at Nkandla, whereupon the former president, to Hlophe’s pleasant surprise, offered him not only a seat in parliament but the leadership of the MK Party. Just like that.

And so on Tuesday Hlophe lined up to be sworn in as an MP in the same institution that declared him unfit to be a judge, and paid allegiance to the constitution that his party seeks to destroy. He may not have been fit to be a judge, but apparently he's good enough to be a lawmaker. He joins another delinquent, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, impeached as public protector, who now wears an apron for the EFF. Parliament has been reduced to a playground — if not a dumping ground — for all sorts of crooks, Gupta sycophants and good-for-nothings. Some who ideally should be in jail are lording it in parliament. Infuriating to think that one’s tax money goes into bankrolling these leeches.

Not to be outdone, the ANC sent Zizi Kodwa, one of their own dodgy characters, back to parliament, despite the fact that he had been forced out of the cabinet after he was charged with corruption. It's fitting that he was sworn in with the MKP MPs. Birds of a feather. The ANC’s so-called step-aside rule, it would seem, is merely for show, a cosmetic charade designed to hoodwink the public. But the leopard never changes its spots.

The drubbing in the elections doesn't seem to have made any impression or caused them to change. The penny has yet to drop. They were going around “offering” cabinet posts to other parties and castigating those making “unreasonable demands” as if it was still in their gift to play Father Christmas. They lost; and some humility would be in order. They didn't have the numbers to even elect their president. If Cyril Ramaphosa is their deployee, as they're wont to say, the DA and IFP can also claim him. He's their deployee too. And Ramaphosa himself was still addressing people who voted for him as he would an enemy. What's changed?

But how long can the country afford to wait for one man to make up his mind? Some people are saying we shouldn't be too worried about time frames because it usually takes other countries months to form coalition governments. True, but that's no cause for comfort. Those are stable societies, with strong institutions, which have been democratic for years. We aren't. Our democracy is nascent and tenuous, with vultures like Zuma and his ilk waiting in the wings to rip it apart.

The DA could have saved themselves — and the country — a lot of time and anguish had they named their price upfront and got the deal sealed before casting their vote for Ramaphosa. They should have simply sat on their hands until they got what they wanted. Instead they voted for an ANC president, speaker and the party's slimy candidate for premier in Gauteng on the strength of a contentious note that has proved difficult to honour. Now they have to wait patiently for Ramaphosa as he shuttles to and fro to seek approval from his comrades in the Communist Party.

What the system requires — perhaps never foreseen by drafters of the constitution — is a position or person with no skin in the game who, in the event of a hung parliament, would call the parties together and mediate the formation of a government. Ramaphosa cannot be such a neutral arbiter even if he wanted to, because he has an interest in the outcome. He can't be player and referee. A nominal or titular head of state would be able to act impartiality and command the confidence of all parties.

And if, for instance, our electoral system provided for presidential elections, Ramaphosa would have been answerable to us, and not beholden to some unelected cabal. He would hopefully be bolder in taking decisions, safe in the knowledge that his party would find it difficult to sack him even if they disapproved of what he did. Right now he's hostage to those who pull strings from the shadows. If the public were able to directly elect their mayors, MPs, premiers and president, it would have been almost impossible for the likes of Julius Malema and Zuma to desecrate parliament by using it to reward their lickspittles.

The current system does not only lack accountability, it makes it difficult for wrongdoers to be brought to book. Zuma, for instance, was able to go on a looting campaign because the party protected him. It would otherwise not have dared to put him up as a candidate in a presidential election where he would have to seek a public mandate.

The system requires a drastic overhaul, not cosmetic changes. A tentative attempt at reforming it was sabotaged by Aaron Motsoaledi, who packed the task team with cronies to produce an outcome he wanted. The new home affairs minister will have to put those people out to pasture and consult widely across all sectors of society to come up with an electoral system that will live up to our aspirations. The country deserves no less.