Stop the abuse of power in parly

“I swear/solemnly affirm that I will be faithful to the Republic of South Africa and will obey, respect and uphold the Constitution and all other laws of the Republic; and I solemnly promise to perform my functions as a member of the National Assembly to the best of my ability.”

That phrase will be heard repeatedly today as hundreds of MPs and National Council of Provinces delegates step up to do their duty as public servants.

That, to us, is the critical point about our politicians: being any political office holder is a privilege, in the sense that you have the fate of the nation in your hands. It is not a privilege in the sense that you can milk the system by claiming extravagant perks as either an MP or a minister, nor that you can enrich yourself because of your close proximity to the public purse.

This is already being hailed as the “new dawn” parliament of President Cyril Ramaphosa, the one which will, finally, see the majority of its members putting the interests of the country ahead of their own and ahead of those of the party that put them there.

You will excuse us if we do not hold our breath on that. Already, it seems that some of the ANC’s usual suspects will not only make it back into parliament, but will still be in positions of power, including in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.

While it may be true that he might be giving them the rope they need to hang themselves politically and that he needs to keep looking over his shoulder at the far-from-finished faction loyal to former president Jacob Zuma, we point out that the country cannot take much more abuse before it becomes a de facto failed state.

It is only you, our representatives, who can stop that happening.

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