Motion on direct Presidential election is a waste of time

I hear some MP is to present a motion in Parliament calling for the constitution to be amended in such a way that the President of the Republic will be directly elected by the people rather than by Parliament, as is the case currently. I cannot say that I disagree with such a motion, I can only point out that the motion is such an awful waste of time.

Our current problems as a country stem, not from the unpopularity of the President, but from his unsuitability for the post of President of this Republic. Therefore if the constitution is to be amended to address the office of President of the Republic, the office of Vice President, and that of Leader of Opposition, I would suggest that five safeguards be built into the constitution:

1. Minimum educational qualifications should be specified for both the President and the Vice President.

2. Constitutional Mechanisms that enable Parliament to reject any Presidential decree or Executive order by the President, as well as mechanisms that enable the President to veto legislation by Parliament, should be introduced.

3. General Elections should be held on a date uncompromisingly specified in the constitution, say the last Friday of July, every fifth year.

4. Voting should continue to be by secret ballot, but NO BALLOT BOX should be allowed to move until the election officials, including party representatives, have counted AND publicly announced the votes contained therein.

5. The position of leader of Opposition in Parliament should not be subject to an election. The leader of the party with the second largest number of elected MPs, following a General Election should automatically become a Member of Parliament, and assume the position of leader of Opposition. He/she should hold that position until the next General Election, irrespective of defections. If a General election produces a tie in the number of MPs, either for ruling or for opposition, the tie should be broken in similar manner.

I submit that if the above measures become “hard-coded” into our constitution, it will be immaterial whether the President is directly elected or elected by Parliament. Direct election on its own will simply usher in the most popular man, who most likely will be a good administrator, but not a competent operator. I have been to Kgotla gatherings where some old woman, who happens to belong to the President’s party was given unlimited time to comment. Her only original comment line was “You are so pretty, you look just like your father”. The rest of her comment was a regurgitation of the usual platitudes heaped upon the President by the groveling masses, at public gatherings. For crying out loud, why should such a person be given a blank check in determining who becomes president of this republic? I say she shouldn’t, she should instead be given a list of people who have been vetted by the constitutional provisions listed above.

Our country has just hosted an International telecommunication conference of some sort. No doubt the conference was told that our country has installed Internet service points (Nteletsa) for rural communities. What was most likely, not revealed, is how many of these still work and why the rest don’t. You can easily do the maths – how many public telephones, private or otherwise still operate? Granted, vandalism contributed to some of these facilities being discontinued, but I doubt if it all had to do with vandalism – we have an administration headed by a former soldier, whose deficient academic grounding renders him good for nothing except implementation of so-called “Security” around Government buildings, telecommunication lines, etc. It’s time we had a constitution which safeguards our country from such people holding the office of president of this Republic.