President Nelson Mandela has suggested a review of South Africa's electoral system as a means of excising the image of parliament as "a carriage on a gravy train whose passengers idle away their time at the nation's expense".
His proposal, made in his valedictory address to parliament, is aimed at increasing interaction between members of parliament and the public, and thereby keeping the public better informed. Many observers believe that contact between parliamentarians and the electorate has been reduced to the barest minimum under the party list of proportional representation adopted for the watershed 1994 election and still in place for the election scheduled for June 2nd, the first since the scrapping of the legal buttresses of apartheid.
Parliamentarians are not accountable to, and responsible for, specific constituencies. Their fate lies in the hands of the party bosses, not distinct constituencies. The party bosses have the power in the last analysis to determine their fate by demoting them to the lower rungs of the list or promoting them to its upper echelons.
Mr Mandela's remarks come amid a growing clamour for the introduction of an electoral system which combines proportional representation with constituencies. The Irish and German system have been mentioned as possible models.
South Africa's 1996 constitution does not preclude the introduction of constituencies. It merely states that proportional representation should be adopted, without prescribing its precise parameters. The nod has so far gone to the party list system because it is simpler and easier to understand than the more complicated models favoured by Europe. It has been held to be more appropriate to South Africa, many of whose black voters are, for historical reasons, relatively unsophisticated and uneducated.
But the introduction of a system combining party lists with geographically defined constituencies in the local government elections of 1995-96 has opened the way for the adoption of a similar system in national and provincial elections. President Mandela, who was praised lavishly by all political leaders in parliament during his farewell appearance, has now added his considerable prestige to arguments for a change in the system.
Mr Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Party and perhaps the most trenchant critic of Mr Mandela's ANC government, has placed on record his appreciation of South Africa's elder statesman as a man whose greatness transcended the bounds of ordinary politicians. Comparing Mr Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi or the Dalai Lama, men whose lives are permeated with spirituality, Mr Leon said: "Our respect and admiration for you are unconditional . . . We will not your like again."
Reuters adds: Mr Mandela and his chosen heir, with competition from his former wife Winnie, launched their party's election campaign yesterday.
About 20,000 people packed the Orlando soccer stadium in Johannesburg's dusty Soweto township to hear the ANC president, Mr Thabo Mbeki, kick off the campaign with a promise of accelerated change.
But Mr Mbeki was drowned out halfway through his speech by cheers for Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (64), who arrived 45 minutes late and walked slowly across the pitch separating Mr Mbeki from the crowd.
"Viva the president of the African National Congress Women's League," Mr Mbeki said in terse acknowledgement of her arrival.