Zuma under fire for targeting Bill of Rights

Despite former President Jacob Zuma’s call to abolish secret voting raising significant concerns about the democratic principles and practices in SA, political analysts argue it would be impossible to change the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Zuma recently told MK Party supporters that they would change election laws, where voting would no longer be secret, adding most things were prevented by laws that were ‘not ours’. ‘It’s laws from Roman-Dutch. We will change these laws and introduce African laws. If you are a black person and don’t vote for a black, you will quickly regret it,’ he said. He added that ‘this secrecy must stop’ and ‘why must I hide my vote if I am voting for the party I love?’ The Citizen reports that elections analyst Michael Atkins said the secret ballot is the most important part of free and fair elections and there was no connection between the vote being secret and somebody rigging the election later: ‘It is almost impossible to change that law, because Section 19 of the Constitution states everybody has the right to vote, and to do so in secret.’ He said that because it is in the Bill of Rights, it would take a 75% majority in Parliament to change that. Political analyst André Duvenhage said Zuma had made several irresponsible announcements. ‘He is undermining the basic systems according to his viewpoints,’ Duvenhage said. Political analyst Lesiba Teffo said Zuma was blatantly fooling his audiences and supporters because he knew that was not possible. ‘Even Zuma doesn’t believe what he’s saying,’ Teffo said.

Full report in The Citizen