Parliamentary panel proposes direct election of MPs

A parliamentary panel led by former president Kgalema Motlanthe has proposed that MPs be elected to their seats by popular vote and not be appointed by political parties.

The panel has also recommended that the powers of traditional leaders be clipped, saying their subjects were not enjoying the same constitutional rights as other citizens.

Motlanthe's high-level panel says political party bosses are too powerful and can prevent MPs from acting independently when holding the executive to account.

The panel was set up by Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete almost two years ago to evaluate the socio-economic effects of laws enacted since 1994. Its report was released on Tuesday after 21 months of public consultations across the country.

Motlanthe's panel has revived the debate on the appropriateness of the current electoral system. It has proposed that parliament change the Electoral Act to curtail the authority of party leaders over MPs.

The panel said the legislature should "amend the electoral act to provide for an electoral system that makes MPs accountable to defined constituencies on a proportional representation and constituency system for national elections".

At present MPs are appointed by political parties on the basis of electoral lists they compile. The number of MPs a party can appoint is proportional to its share of the vote in an election.

The panel recommended that 50% of seats be allocated to constituency MPs and 50% to MPs party-nominated by proportional representation, in line with the proposal of the Frederik van Zyl Slabbert commission of 2002, during the Thabo Mbeki administration. Its recommendations were not acted on.

It said the current administration was reproducing the ills of the apartheid era.

The extent to which the recommendations of the panel have the support of the political parties is not known.