A president SA never voted for

18 February 2016 - 02:26 By Dennis Bloem, COPE spokesman

South Africans must fight for a participatory democracy in which the citizens elect the president. At present section (42)(3) of our constitution hands the power to elect the president to the National Assembly rather than the people.The National Assembly is easily coerced as the p resident can reward his champions in the assembly with top posts in the executive. Everyone else in the ANC then toes the line. Every ruling party MP seeks to ingratiate himself/herself in the president's good books to climb the ladder. In this way, ANC MPs have readily forfeited their constitutional duty to scrutinise and oversee executive action. They are now the pliant stooges of the president.We now have a lame duck president surrounded by quacks.Ours is meant to be a government of the people, therefore the people should determine how the president should be elected in the future. The incumbent is so damaged and so drained that he is of no use to South Africa. Moreover, he has broken his oath of office .Furthermore, the president has much too much power.He can appoint people to positions they are woefully underqualified for.This excess of power has allowed him to destroy the processes of parliament, the fiscus, state-owned enterprises and even the economy. It is a disaster.COPE calls for a referendum on how the president should be elected. ..

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