Time to make politicians listen – IRR

30 October 2024

South Africa has a golden opportunity to choose an electoral system that ensures that the country’s representatives in parliament listen to the people who put them there.

So says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) ahead of the deadline for public comment on electoral reform.

Tomorrow is the final day to make submissions to the Electoral Reform Consultation Panel (ERCP) which will examine possible reforms to our electoral system.

Says IRR analyst and writer, Marius Roodt: “The electoral system that South Africa currently uses has a number of advantages, notably the very high level of proportionality achieved, with the proportion of legislative seats a party is awarded very closely matching its overall proportion of the vote. However, as noted by the chair of the ERCP, party bosses have more control over who goes to Parliament than voters and this needs to change.

“The country had the opportunity to comprehensively overhaul the electoral system when the Constitutional Court said in 2020 that independents should be allowed to stand for Parliament and the nine provincial legislatures. However, the tweaks made to the Electoral Act and the electoral system to allow this were, frankly, absurd,” says Roodt.

“But the country now has a real opportunity to implement an electoral system that will not only ensure proportionality, which is constitutionally required, but also allow for members of parliament and the nine provincial legislatures to directly represent communities,” Roodt adds.

The IRR has already made a submission to the ERCP proposing a number of electoral systems which meet these requirements.

Greater democratic accountability and stability are vital for South Africa and these proposals are one way of achieving this, notes Roodt.

The IRR will continue this work in 2025 and is planning to conduct polling next year on public perceptions of electoral reforms and electoral systems.

The IRR’s submission to the ECRP can be read here and other reports on electoral reform here and here.

Issued by Marius Roodt, IRR Head of Campaigns, 30 October 2024