The SA Council of Churches (SACC) has urged parliamentarians to reject the proposed Electoral Amendment Bill which will be voted on at the National Assembly on Thursday.
In a statement early on Thursday, SACC general secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana said the bill, which is set to usher changes in the country’s electoral system, is questionable and unjust.
He said the proposed changes will oppress the independent candidates, and suggested that they will also deviate the bill from its main mandate to afford all voters equal rights.
“The SACC argues that the spirit of the constitution was to give equal rights to all South Africans to elect, as well as stand for public office, without the requirement to first associate through a political party,” said Mpumlwana.
“Instead of the freedom for South Africans to freely select their representatives in the spirit of ‘the people shall govern’, political party bosses and their structures appoint candidates to take up seats won proportionally through a vote for the political parties.”
Mpumlwana said the responsibility of parliament is to amend the unconstitutionality of the current electoral system, which does not “do justice to independents and those who will vote for them”.
He explained: “The responsibility that was set at the foot of parliament in June 2020 was to amend the unconstitutionality of the current electoral system in a manner that would remove the requirement of political party affiliation in order to run for public office.
“Individual independent candidates are made to compete unfairly with political parties for votes, and in this scheme, they will also stand to lose the impact of votes beyond the basic number required for a seat.
“If a seat in parliament is worth 50 000 votes, and an independent candidate gets 500 000 votes, only 50 000 will count and all of 450 000 ballots cast away. Yet a political party with the same number of votes will lose no votes and register 10 MPs. Thus, on this alone, allowing the bill to pass would be a travesty of justice.”
The SACC further called on President Cyril Ramaphosa not to sign the bill should the motion pass in parliament, saying it wants him to consider the challenges that will emerge.
“We are calling on President Ramaphosa, in reviewing this Electoral Amendments Bill, to demonstrate his allegiance to the people of South Africa by putting the principles of national inclusivity ahead of any partisan agenda, and indeed consider the serious prospect of the constitutional challenge to this, should it, unfortunately, pass through parliament,” added Mpumlwana.
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