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IS THIS THE BEST?

07/06/2018 02:55:00 By vusi Kunene

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I would like to once again congratulate the country on attaining the golden jubilee after independence. What a milestone. But I have some questions with regard to the day this milestone was celebrated and if someone can clarify it for me and those having the same question.

Have we not celebrated the day earlier than the real date of our independence? Meaning, have we not celebrated the 50 years even before we reached the 50 years? I have always known that our independence day is on September 6.

The Tinkhundla System of Governance has taken us this far and has been holding on for a long time. We are told that when this system of governance was introduced it was a pilot project that was being tested after another system was seen not to be good for the people of this country.

Government and Parliament believe that this is still the best for the country despite the fact that there are growing cries that the system should be changed. I have no problem with any system of governance but I have a problem with a system that does not treat it citizens well or that does not respect the rights of citizens. Is this the best system such that we do not even want to tweak it?

We are heading for elections in a few months and we will be electing people using the same system that has seen those we elect forget about the people who elected them. Who are they representing when they do not consult their constituencies? Whose views are they bringing to Parliament if they do not talk to the people who elected them?

There are Bills that are debated in Parliament and they are passed in haste unlike the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill that took a long time to be passed. People are not consulted on a majority of the Bills. Calling people to make submissions before committees is not the right way to go because only those who are educated can read newspapers that are written in English. Further those in rural areas have no access to newspapers like the community that I come from.

I don’t recall our Member of Parliament visiting my community since he was elected but he decided to pass a Bill that speaks to election of women without getting the views of the women who elected him.

Is it not time we consider the view of the chief justice of this country, even though it was his personal view, that those who go to Parliament and fail in their duties should be recalled? There may be problems that we foresee in allowing that, but I am of the opinion that as citizens we can engage and iron out those problems or rather pilot it and see what would happen.

The chief justice was part of those who drafted our Constitution and he knows that it allows for such or can be amended to allow this. It is unfortunate that he was then taken to task in some quarters for expressing his views, which views are what we as people of this country are supposed to bring forth.

We have seen even the office of the prime minister making blunders that have brought the country to shame and this is still happening even today. What immediately comes to mind is when the office of the prime minister told our Court of Appeal, as it then was, that they can go to hell as government was not going to respect its judgment. That type of an MP was supposed to be recalled because he brought shame to the country.

We are told that we have money problems and there are no increments for civil servants and they are supposed to understand. At the same time we see the armed forces of the country being elevated in positions and awarded upper scales in their salaries. The latest is the more than 300 who were promoted.

It seems we are pleasing the personnel of the armed forces than caring for the whole civil service. The people who are supposed to speak to that because it is affecting the country’s purse, which is Parliament, are busy fighting that women should not go to Parliament because their husbands have not given them the authority to do so. Is this the best we can do?