In 1976 the students at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto rose up to challenge the might of the apartheid state, together with many other school students in Soweto. They rose up against the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at the black secondary schools. This was at the peak of the Black Consciousness Movement, from the struggles that started with the emergence of the South African Students Organisation in 1968 led by Steve Biko, Barney Pityana, Saths Cooper, Muntu Myeza, Strini Moodley, Patrick ‘Terror’ Lekota, Aubrey Nchaupe Mokoape, Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, Nkwenkwe Nkomo, Kaborone Sedibe and Zithulele Cindi.
At the first democratic general elections in South Africa in April 1994, nearly two decades after the 16 June 1976 uprising, the class of 1976 and the BCM were scattered across the political spectrum of South Africa. The majority had joined African National Congress and South African Communist Party in droves. Some had joined the Pan-Africanist Congress, while others had joined the Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo) and South African Youth Congress (Sayco). The students’ body that had organised itself in opposition to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction was spread and was scattered among the political parties of South Africa. There was no central focus or command.
The focus of the 1976 students and BCM had been on establishing one person one vote of equal value for all the adults of South Africa, extending to black and all non-white adults the right to directly elect their political representatives as members of parliament and provincial councillors, in the same way that had existed previously exclusively for whites. We fought for equal rights for all the citizens of South Africa, black and white.
Yet the goal for establishing equal rights for all the citizens has remained elusive till today. The class of 1976 lost the ball and the focus. We have not reached the minimum goals of the BCM. One person one vote of equal value for electing our leaders remains elusive. We still do not have the same rights the whites had under apartheid. We have not yet reached Uhuru, as the Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiongo would say.
The initial parliamentary electoral laws adopted for the first non-racial general elections in 1994 were understood to be temporary and not permanent, but they have been kept by subsequent ANC governments for three decades despite several proposals to change them.
In 1999 Electoral Task Team chaired by Dr Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert was instituted to explore alternative parliamentary electoral laws for South Africa. The Electoral Task Team presented its report to the Cabinet in March 2003 with two main recommendations: the minority recommendations and the majority recommendations
The minority recommendations proposed continuation for the National Assembly and provincial councils of the 100% proportional representation electoral system that was used in 1994, also known as a closed list system. It is a system where citizens are only allowed to vote for political parties. The citizens have no rights to choose their representatives by name as individuals, they cannot choose members of parliament or provincial councillors as individuals who they as voters can de-select and reject for office in future general elections. In this system, they cannot choose the president, and they cannot choose the provincial premiers and their mayors. All these state and government officials are appointed by the political parties without the participation and inputs of the citizens. The citizens are treated like children, with no right to choose for themselves who they want to represent them, accountable to them in a constituency.
The majority recommendations, by contrast, proposed that 75% (300) of members of parliament should be elected as individuals in large, multi-member constituencies, with 25% (100) of members of parliament being appointed in a proportional representation manner in a similar way to the current system. This majority recommendations were rejected by President Thabo Mbeki’s government, continued by all ANC subsequent governments in the last thirty years.
Addressing the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation Inclusive Growth Forum at a conference in the Drakensberg In October 2022, the former president of South Africa and ANC deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, said South Africa was on the brink of a precipice.
Former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas said: "We need a fundamental rethink of the electoral system that has created a crisis of political accountability. I do not see how elected representatives will change their tendency to kowtow to the whims of their political parties unless the system changes to make them more accountable to their constituents.
"Any agenda for change must incorporate a mass mobilisation campaign for electoral reform, and we must all intensify the efforts by civil society organisations campaigning for a more constituency-based system of government," he said.
These proposals were not supported by the ANC government. The ANC was no longer a party of reforms, as it was during the apartheid era pre-1994. In power, ANC became a party of retardation and regression. Most South African citizens have acknowledged that the rampant corruption is partly because of the lack of individual accountability of politicians to the voters. The class of 1976 has been swallowed by political events in South Africa and has lost focus on the original goals of BCM to establish one person one vote of equal value for all the citizens.
In 2020 the New Nation Movement took the Electoral Act to the Constitutional Court stating that the Electoral Act of 1996 was unconstitutional as it did not allow citizens without party affiliation and membership to stand for elections to parliament in national and provincial assemblies. It argued that the Electoral Act was prejudiced against ordinary citizens in favour of political parties by banning independent candidates, and that there was no justification for the limitation.
The National Assembly instructed the minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to facilitate the changes and amendments. Dr Motsoaledi established the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) chaired by Valli Moosa to work on the parliamentary electoral laws reforms and amend the electoral Act of 1996.
MAC produced two proposals. The minority recommendations proposed that 50% (200) members of parliament should be elected by allowing independent candidates to compete alongside political party candidates. The other 50% (200) members of parliament would be contested by political parties only. The logistsics of implementing these reforms were not easy, as they required changes in the number of signatures for registration of political parties and for independent candidates to be revised. All in all, this is a partial reform from the 100 % (400) MPs under proportional representation to 50% (200) proportional representation. We still do not have the same rights the whites had under apartheid.
The majority report proposed a single-member constituency option which favoured introducing single-member constituencies, with proportionality secured via party lists. In this case independents would stand as individuals in constituencies and compete together with associates for the party-list vote.
The 70s Group believes that majority of the members of parliament must be directly elected by the citizens. In the same way, the president, premiers and mayors should be directly elected by the citizens. This is the only way to establish individual accountability of politicians in South Africa.
The class of 1976 and the BCM still has a long way to go before realising true democracy in South Africa. We must continue campaigning for further parliamentary electoral reforms until individual accountability of politicians is established.
