Perhaps MP hopefuls should take entrance tests

It’s said that South Africa’s party list electoral system is one of the things strangling true democracy in our country.

That’s because people vote for parties and not individuals, to represent them in parliament… and therefore have no single, actual human being to direct their ideas, complaints or anger, towards.

A party list appointment as an MP is effectively a reward for loyalty, not capability. And that’s why 90% of our representatives do very little to earn their fat salaries.

Now, the Electoral Act has been ruled unconstitutional because it does not allow individuals to stand for election to parliament.

That is wonderful – in theory.

In practice, what it means is that there will be many more names cluttering up ballot papers and many more ways to split the vote. So, opposition – so vital in a country like ours – could be weakened.

The other problem is that the sort of people who like to offer themselves for public service as such individual candidates are, with respect, not likely to be the cream of the crop and driven more by ego than anything else.

We need, more than anything, to improve our current MPs.

So, rather than individual candidates, how about entrance tests for parliamentary hopefuls?

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