A Critical Analysis of South Africa’s System of Government: From a Disjunctive System to a Synergistic System of Government

Abstract

The right to vote in South Africa is one of the fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution. South Africa ran its sixth election on 8 May 2019. Since the birth of democracy in 1994, it has had four presidents, two of whom did not serve their full term in office. Former President Thabo Mbeki resigned after he was recalled for using the country’s law enforcement system to undermine Jacob Zuma’s chances of succeeding him. He resigned with nine months to go in his second term in office. Mbeki’s successor, former President Jacob Zuma, also resigned from office during his second term with 14 months to go. Several stinging criticisms were levelled against him. For example, he was accused of tribalism and being a “ruralitarian” who lacked urban sophistication to understand and lead a large economy such as South Africa. He was also accused of benefiting his family through creating business opportunities for them and directing development projects to his home village. Furthermore, his government was accused of being weak on corruption, and being easily influenced by the communists. In light of the above, the question that begs for an answer is: does the current South African system of government and electoral system provide for high-level political accountability? In answering this question, further ancillary questions are posed throughout the article. What informed the drafters of the Electoral Amendment Act 73 of 1998 to choose the current electoral system? Is it time for South Africa to review its electoral system? How can South Africa increase the level of political accountability of the President?

Democracy and the rule of law: Comparative lessons between Uganda and South Africa

“…The electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation, which means that parties are represented in proportion to their electoral support as determined by each party. 68 This system has been fiercely criticised, mainly because it tends to lessen accountability between representatives and their constituencies as such representatives are not directly elected by the voters in those constituencies. 69 In so far as the rule of law is concerned, the 2020 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 70 ranked South Africa 45th out of 128 countries in the world.…”

Design and Research of a Government Affairs Office Platform

“…Sites in a site collection share functions such as sharing rights, template libraries, content kinds, and web components, and they typically use the same navigation. e site collection's sites are all kept in the same SQL database [8]. Portal sites are often constructed as site collections, with the root site serving as the portal's main page.…”