BRETT HERRON: Scheme to expand Western Cape legislature is disgraceful

Three months after suspending thousands of teachers’ posts due to alleged budgetary constraints, the Western Cape government has retabled its proposal to swell the number of members of the provincial legislature — at an annual cost of tens of millions of rand.

The proposal, mooted by the DA-led province a number of years ago, was put back on the table last week by the provincial standing committee on premier & constitutional matters.

The committee estimated the cost over the first three years at R60m, excluding the costs of support staff, office accommodation, administration and perks.

According to a DA spokesperson, the aim of the exercise is to bring the number of MPLs in line with a growing population. The current ratio of one MPL to 176,000 residents should ideally be reduced to 1:100,000, DA MPL Benedicta van Minnen said.

She said more MPLs would “enable more robust and effective oversight of the provincial government and its service delivery programmes”.

She did not say that more MPLs would raise more Electoral Commission of SA funding for her party, besides the opportunity to deploy more of its cadres.

The proposal is disgraceful on several levels, the most obvious being the need to prioritise the delivery of basic services above laying more places at the table for our political friends. (Over the past 10 years the DA has consistently campaigned to reduce the size and cost of government.)

The timing of the DA’s announcement of its expansionist dream — in the same week that most of the nation was gnashing its teeth ahead of the delivery of a national budget to an acutely cash-short country hamstrung by slow economic growth, mass poverty and joblessness — defied belief.

The party’s attempt to rationalise the expansion of the provincial legislature, based on the “ideal” ratio of one MPL per 100,000 residents, is absurd. Applying that ratio to national parliament would require expanding the number of MPs from 400 to 600, which would make SA’s parliament bigger than that of the US.

Discussions about the size of legislatures are not new. In ancient Greece Plato worked out that the ideal city should comprise 5,040 citizens divided into four classes, ruled by a council of 360 members — 90 members of each class.

In the US, a discussion on the size of legislatures was published in the 1787 Federalist Papers: “It is to be remarked that, however small the republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain number, to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number to guard against the confusion of a multitude.”

In an article published by the highly regarded Europe-based Centre for Economic Policy Research, “The More the Merrier: Choosing the optimal number of representatives in modern democracies”, the authors present a square root formula (with which SA’s number of national MPs roughly accords).

They make the general point that “too few MPs means parliament is likely to be unrepresentative, but it seems that having too many makes it easy for vested interests to buy influence.”

Not all nations share SA’s three-tier structure of government. In its announcement that it would process a motion “that may increase legislature seats”, the DA said the province’s population had grown by 80% since 1999, yet it was the only province that had not increased its number of MPLs. Currently the legislature consists of 42 members; the DA would like at least 48 members, but the committee is investigating between six and 30 additional members.

Surely, at a time of extreme hardship for millions of citizens and extremely unequal qualities of life, the DA should lead by example in demonstrating that size counts less than performance?

Does the province need more teachers or more MPLs? Would it not make more sense for the province to put as much money as possible towards steering young citizens away from substance abuse and crime? Or towards improving the quality of life for the millions of residents who are living with no dignity, in overcrowded apartheid-made townships, backyards and shacks?

For just about the first time in the history of the Western Cape legislature the DA’s proposal is likely to be supported by the ANC — which tells its own story. Both parties are keen for the opportunities increasing their number of representatives will bring them.

The GOOD party will oppose this lunacy — despite the likelihood of being assigned an additional seat if the scheme to expand the legislature succeeds.

In our view, whether the country benefits from funding the provincial level of government should be considered in the context of a broader societal discussion about freeing available capital through eradicating wastage, duplication and unnecessary spending.

The spending on provinces should be reduced, if not eliminated altogether.

• Herron, a Western Cape MPL, is secretary-general of the GOOD party.