Let's elect our president directly

By brett Submitted on 9 February, 2009 - 06:11

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Over the past year or so I have travelled a lot in east and southern Africa, and usually at some point in any visit to another country, the topic of Jacob Zuma will come up. Generally, people I've met in Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe or Uganda struggle to understand how or why Zuma is set to be South Africa's next president.

They have all read or seen reports about Zuma. His trial and acquittal for rape, and the ongoing corruption charges against him. They've taken note of Zuma's perpetual singing, and his often crazy remarks -- such as saying he took a shower to protect himself from HIV. They ask why South Africans would vote for a person who says and does such things.

What I always have to explain, is that we South Africans don't get to elect our president directly. In national elections, we vote for a party, and the leader of the winning party gets to be president. This system means that in effect, the president of the country is directly chosen by a relatively small group of people -- those within the winning party who sit on the committee that elects the party leader.

I really wonder whether Jacob Zuma would have any chance of being president were that position to be elected directly by the country's voters. Certainly I have not come across anyone who thinks he's the right person for the job -- despite all the claims that he's popular among the people.

I also think that maybe it's time we changed the electoral system in South Africa, to allow for direct presidential elections. This would really democratise the process and enable each and every South African to choose the country's chief executive.

It would also allow for better separation of powers. The president and the majority party in Parliament would have independent power bases, which would enable Parliament to be a bit more independent and hold the President and the executive accountable. Of course if the President still happened to be from the majority party, this separation would be weakened, but it might also happen that the President comes from a completely different party from the majority party in Parliament.

I know there can be negatives to this system -- for example, we've seen the legislative process stalled for months in Malawi, because the majority in Parliament was determined to stone-wall the president. But there are ways to resolve such deadlocks.

What we need, though, is for all South Africans to feel they have chosen the country's president -- and that this is someone we can all respect as a leader. I doubt that will happen should Jacob Zuma take up the post after this year's general elections.