Africa-Press – Eswatini. Members of parliament have argued that coming up with a law that provides for a recall for underperforming legislators was unfeasible and unsound.
They questioned what would happen to the appointed parliamentarians as well as how their performance would be assessed.
According to the provisions of the Constitution, 59 MPs are elected while 10 MPs and 20 senators are appointed by the Head of State.
The legislators were responding to a statement from the Elections and Boundaries Commission Chairman, Mhlabuhlangene Dlamini, who said there was a need for the country’s political system to allow voters the power to recall their underperforming representatives from Parliament.
The EBC chairperson noted that it was a weakness that under the country’s election system, there was no available controlled and balanced mechanism, by which voters were able to hold their elected politicians accountable.
He said the filling of this gap was among the reform measures for the Tinkhundla political system urgently required for its efficiency and utility and that this may include the power to recall, in a non-abusive and controlled method, not made too easy to exploit for abuse.
The legislators, however, are of the view that such legislation would be unfair to elected MPs, while favouring appointed MPs as the electorate would have no power to recall them.
They argued that service delivery was a collective effort, while insisting that local government should also be held accountable and not just legislators.
The MPs further stated that the EBC chairman was out of order and urged him to stop trying to score points at their expense.
Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo opted to reserve his comments and only stated that he was not qualified to offer a comment on something that is not feasible and unsound.
MP Sibusiso Scorpion Nxumalo said this would be a fruitless initiative in the absence of proper civic education.
“The MPs’ power to change policy is on paper. Recall laws would work well in multi-party politics because the party owns the governance policy and sets time bound deliverables to the population,” he said.
He said in the local Tinkhundla system of governance, it was critical not to ignore that the civil service and Executive run the show and such legislation would be tantamount to barking at the wrong tree.
“We need an overall performance management in the government machinery that can put everyone on the spot if there are cases of non-delivery at constituency level,” he said.
Order
He also questioned how the appointed MPs and civil servants, like the chairman (EBC) would be called to order if they were not performing.
He questioned why the elected MPs should be made the sacrificial lambs.
According to Nxumalo, in most instances when they advocated for what the people wanted, they were either jailed or victimised.
He added that he felt that the chairman spoke from a position of privilege and as MPs they were accountable to their constituencies.
The legislator said it was difficult for MPs to have a private motion Bill that could be successful and addressed the needs of the people.
“People who need to be recalled are those in power. MPs are in office not in power,” said Nxumalo.
Adding, he said voters always have a say on their performance at the ballot box.
But the challenge was how those who were not elected account for their lot to the people.
He said in order to change a community’s aspirations, an MP needed time to implement policies and chopping and changing would not aid community development.
Nxumalo said the real issue was how the government machinery dealt with inequality in the country, sharing wealth and continue to live peacefully.
He said as these issues were not addressed, there would always be such air-conditioned commentators.
MP Robert Magongo said the EBC chairman was out of order.
Magongo said the section that provided for the power of recall in the Constitution was removed by the eighth Parliament.
He said the chairman should also clarify on what would happen to the appointed members should such legislation be enacted.
Meanwhile, MP Mduduzi Matsebula said he did not have a problem with the power of recall if it was done through a referendum, otherwise the whole electoral system would be thrown into disarray.
“It is of critical importance that before you introduce a power of recall, where voters have power to recall an elected member of parliament presumably for under or non-performance, you should put in place a clear appraisal system with key performance areas, indicators and ratings,” he said.
Matsebula also urged the EBC chairman to stop ‘trying to score points at the expense of parliamentarians’ and focus on his mandate, which included intensifying the long overdue voter civic education so that voters elected the right people and for the right reasons from Bucopho, Indvuna Yenkhundla to MP.
Adding, MP Allen Stewart said such legislation would divide legislators as appointed MPs would be at an advantage.
He also questioned the motive behind making these statements now that the country was preparing for the elections.
He further stated that this would be costly to government, as such an initiative could be abused by the hopefuls who lost the elections.
“This could result in a situation where those who lost elections would mobilise the opposition to remove the elected MP out of spite,” he said.
He also said this would be better suited if decentralisation was fully implemented and each Inkhundla centre had a sufficient budget as it would make it better to assess whether an MP was delivering or not.
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