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On Thursday evening, 16 November, Judge Johann Kriegler delivered the Annual Helen Suzman Memorial Lecture, coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of the Helen Suzman Foundation’s establishment.

Kriegler’s lecture was titled, “Elections: Facts & Fantasies”. There could be few better suited to give this lecture. Kriegler chaired South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission in 1994 – a body on which he served alongside Helen Suzman – and later headed the permanent Electoral Commission until 1999. He went on to participate in electoral missions under the auspices of the United Nations, the African Union and other agencies in more than twenty countries across five continents, notably in Timor-Leste, Kenya, Afghanistan and the Maldives.

Among the points made by Kriegler in his lecture was that the Electoral Commission (IEC) has delivered an unbroken chain of good and functional elections, observing that “our track record as an emergent democracy has been outstanding … we have managed to conduct six peaceful, undisputed national and provincial elections … I don’t think we are sufficiently aware of the enormity, the scope of that success.”

Contradicting prevailing narratives, Kriegler maintained that the electoral system is not to blame for the faults of South Africa’s political representatives. He argued that changing the electoral system from one of proportional representation to first-past-the-post, or a mixed system, would not itself increase accountability, insisting that “this lack of accountability has got nothing to do with the electoral system”.

He cautioned against the belief that the election of individual representatives to Parliament would in some way fix the system to make Parliament responsible and accountable. He argued that individual representatives would not be held to account by a party in Parliament and would find it difficult to effectively meet the demands of Parliament’s business and its committee structures.

“The fate of our democracy is not determined by intellectual debates about accountability,” said Kriegler, but rather determined by active participation by civil society. He encouraged members of civil society to get involved in the political process, starting by registering to vote and encouraging others to register.

At the lecture’s end, Kriegler urged moral and active support on the part of every responsible citizen for the IEC as it conducts elections next year. He stated that civil society “would be well advised to focus on promoting registration and participation” of the large portion of the electorate who have been left behind. He finished his speech by paraphrasing Shakespeare’s JuliusCaesar:“It is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Issued by Prolong Consulting on behalf of Helen Suzman Foundation