Former President Thabo Mbeki has called for a complete overhaul of the process used to elect South Africa’s president, saying the current system does not ensure that the head of state is truly qualified for the role.
Mbeki made the remarks while delivering a keynote address at the launch of the National Dialogue initiative, hosted by Nelson Mandela University in the Eastern Cape over the weekend.
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In South Africa, voters do not directly elect the president. Instead, they cast their ballots for political parties that occupy 400 seats in the National Assembly. The president is then chosen by a majority vote of Members of Parliament (MPs) from among their ranks.
Thabo Mbeki Questions the Competency of the Current System
Mbeki criticised this system, arguing that it overlooks a crucial element — the competence of the person elected to the highest office.
“Because we must make sure that the person who becomes president must be competent to carry out all of the tasks which are detailed in the Constitution.
“When Parliament said I must become president, they had not the slightest clue of what I was capable of doing and they never asked,” Mbeki said.
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He added that this issue should be a priority for the National Dialogue initiative, which aims to examine and address pressing national challenges.
“One of the things they must say in the National Dialogue, the intelligentsia, we have to change the manner in which we choose our president,” he emphasised.
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