Congress of the People (Cope) President Mosiuoa Lekota on Tuesday suggested South Africa was heading down a similar path which led to the deterioration of Zimbabwe.

"Today, the Zim dollar is worth nothing. Money is a receipt to indicate that you are entitled to certain goods in that country and when there's nothing to get in that country... nobody wants money like that, you want money that represents something.

"The rand still represents something but it's also going down the route where if we don't stop this thing, one day it will be worth nothing," he said, addressing the Rotary Club in Bryanston.

Lekota said the "deterioration" in South Africa needed to be addressed before it progressed.

He said the reason "parties of liberation" failed their countries was "because when they get to the point of freedom, they fail to understand that transition.

"And so instead of responding to the new challenges, they become preoccupied with  rewarding the loyalties of yesteryear," he said.

"At the point when the masses, men and women who are supporting them are expecting better services... no, they want to reward the past, but human beings don't eat history, they don't sleep in history," he said.

Citing Zimbabwe as an example of this, Lekota described how
President Robert Mugabe took commercial farms and gave them to "veterans of the struggle".

"...it escaped his mind, whether they know how to run a commercial farm or not."

As a result of Mugabe's actions, the Zimbabwean dollar was worth nothing, he said.

"We must wake up to the reality that if we do not address this deterioration, South Africa is heading there... where that is at," he said, after explaining the demise of the neighbouring country's economy.

The leader of the party, a breakaway from the ANC, said to "arrest" the "deterioration" South Africans must vote for a party which would change the electoral system.

"If you really want to arrest that... the fundamental, the one issue I think South Africans must focus on is that we must go to this election and vote for an organisation... that wants the electoral system changed," he said.

"... 15 years on, political parties appoint people not on the basis of whether they have the necessary skills, the know-how, the reliability.

"They are appointed on the basis of who is loyal to them and who are their friends, who may be their brothers and sisters, who may be concubines and all of those things. I [have] seen it with my own eyes."

Lekota said political power had to be returned to the people so they could decide who to appoint as public representatives.

"We want to prioritise putting political power in your hands so you decide who will be either the mayor or leaders of cities or towns, you must decide that.

"When you decide that whoever you put there is not accountable to a group of friends or comrades, he's accountable to you... and you have the power to remove them."

The Cope president received a standing ovation after his 30-minute address to around 150 members of the Club.

He was introduced by his second deputy president Linda Odendaal who said Lekota was a leader who put "service" before himself.

Lyn Lammens, a Rotary Club member who had not heard Lekota speak before, described him as impressive.

"I loved his sense of humour," she said.

She added that his address was inspiring but remained unsure about whether she would vote for the newest player on the South African political playing field.

Another Rotary member, Bob Brown, an Englishman with permanent residency in South Africa, said Lekota's address made him wish he could cast a ballot in the April 22 polls.

"I sat there thinking that all the time I was in Britain I never voted... but now here I was wishing I was South African... so I could vote," he said.