Details

The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) is happy to announce the launch of the book

`Political Parties in South Africa: Do they Undermine or Underpin Democracy`?, in cooperation with the Africa Institute of South Africa in the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the University of Pretoria.

Political parties and the party system that underpins South Africa´s democracy have the potential to build a cohesive and prosperous nation. But, in the past few years, the ANC´s dominance has strained the system and tested it and its institutions´ fortitude. There are deeper issues of accountability that often spurn the Constitution and there is also a clear need to foster meaningful public participation and transparency. This book offers a different and detailed assessment of the health of South Africa´s political system.

Introducing the book and hosting a panel discussion will be the editor Heather Thuynsma from the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria. Albert Venter will explain, from a constitutional engineering perspective, why South Africa’s electoral system needs to be reformed. After that, Yolanda Sadie will highlight how women and their issues would be excluded in such a revised electoral system and finally Mari Harris, Stella Fleetwood and Antonia Squara will discuss whether political parties still shift public opinion. And, Katabaro Miti and Siphamandla Zondi will offer their insights into the effect leaders and the political parties they represent have on electoral competition and policy formation.

To start a more general discussion of the book’s findings, Ebrahim Fakir from the Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute and Ralph Mathekga from the University of Johannesburg will offer a short response.

Copies of the book will be given free of charge but are limited.

We would be honored if you would accept our invitation to be part of the book launch and the following discussion.

Please RSVP to info.johannesburg@kas.de until 17th August 2017.