Last Friday marked 100 days until the court ordered deadline for Parliament to change the way we elect our leaders through substantive electoral reform. This process began almost two decades ago and will culminate is the single most important piece of law our country has seen post democracy.
Despite the gravitas of the matter, Parliament has moved at a snail’s pace over the past 18 months and has only indicated now that public participation in all nine provinces will begin on Monday March 7 2022.
However, there exists no programme in the public domain as to the times, dates, locations, and details of these intended public participation meetings. Moreover, we have no indication of what choices will be put before the people of South Africa in these meetings. With just 100 days to go, there is no time for tricks and games.
The One South Africa Movement (OSA) calls on Parliament to urgently make public the public participation programme. With this, we ask Parliament to commit to playing all options before the public, not solely government’s preferred choice. This will allow South Africans to make the necessary arrangements to attend these meetings en masse and to have their say on this important matter.
OSA will spend the next two weeks crisscrossing the country to attend as many of these public participation meetings as possible. We call on every South African to make their voice heard and join the call for direct elections to become law in the next 100 days.
Mudzuli Rakhivhane, OSA National Spokesperson
