South Africa: Low On Trust and Satisfaction, South Africans Want Their MPs to Listen

Seven in 10 citizens say elected officials should prioritise voter demands rather than their own ideas.

Key findings

Seven in 10 South Africans (69%) say elected officials should prioritise voter demands rather than their own ideas. Only a small minority (13%) of citizens say MPs “often” or “always” try their best to listen to what ordinary people have to say. Fewer than one in 10 South Africans (8%) report that they contacted an MP during the previous year about some important problem or to give them their views. Majorities say that Parliament should have the power to make laws (57%) and that the president should explain to Parliament how his government spends taxpayers’ money (59%). More than six in 10 respondents (63%) say that “most” or “all” MPs are involved in corruption, while a further 29% believe that “some” of them are. Popular trust in MPs has declined by more than half since 2011, from 56% to 24%. ▪ Only about one-fifth (22%) of citizens “approve” or “strongly approve” of the way their MPs have performed over the previous 12 months, while two-thirds (67%) express disapproval.

After a general election in May, South Africa’s seventh democratic Parliament was formally constituted on 14 June 2024 and re-elected Cyril Ramaphosa as the country’s president for a second term (Parliament of South Africa, 2024). In the days following, 10 parties with seats in Parliament formed a “government of national unity” coalition to rule the country (Anders, 2024).

The 400-member National Assembly is made up of 18 political parties elected proportionally according to the people’s vote (Parliamentary Monitoring Group, 2024).

Parliament bears the responsibility for passing laws, facilitating public participation in decision-making processes, and exercising oversight over the executive to ensure that the needs of citizens are met (Moodley, 2021).

One of the most spectacular failures of the South African Parliament with regard to public accountability was laid bare during the 2018-2022 investigation of the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, which looked into claims of fraud and corruption in state institutions (Republic of South Africa, 2024). The commission was unequivocal in its finding on the legislature: Parliament “failed to use the oversight and accountability measures at its disposal,” and urgent reforms are needed (Doyle, 2022).

Parliamentary oversight earlier met the glare of publicity in 1999 when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) took advantage of its majority in the National Assembly to halt a probe by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts into a major arms deal linked to high ranking ANC officials (Pillay & Meny-Gibert, 2023). A repeat of this scenario occurred years later: The Constitutional Court found that Parliament failed to exercise oversight and hold then-President Jacob Zuma to account over unlawful upgrades to his Nkandla home (Cohen, 2017).

A 2021 report on parliamentary oversight by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse makes plain the kind of legislature that would benefit citizens: “The improvement we are looking for is a responsive Parliament, whose operations take place in a transparent manner and which shows a welcoming and proactive stance towards public participation” (McDaid, 2022).

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How do South Africans perceive their Parliament?

A 2022 Afrobarometer survey shows that most citizens want members of Parliament (MPs) to exercise oversight over the president and to prioritise voter demands rather than their own ideas. Large majorities are dissatisfied with how their MPs are doing their jobs, perceive most or all of them as unresponsive and corrupt, and don’t trust them.

Citizen-initiated contact with MPs is low, perhaps reflecting weak links between voters and their representatives. Majorities say that elections are not effective in ensuring that voters’ views are reflected in Parliament or in enabling voters to remove unrepresentative leaders.

Asafika Mpako Asafika is the communications coordinator for Southern Africa

Stephen Ndoma Stephen is the assistant project manager for Southern Africa

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