Mbeki calls for overhaul of process to elect SA’s president

Former President Thabo Mbeki has called for an overhaul of the process to elect the country’s president.

Mbeki delivered a keynote address at the Eastern Cape Higher Education Sector National Dialogue launch at Nelson Mandela University over the weekend.

South African voters don’t directly vote for the president at the general elections but elect for political parties to fill 400 seats at the National Assembly.

The president is then voted in by a majority of members of Parliament (MPs) in the National Assembly.

But Mbeki said this doesn’t take into account competencies.

“Because we must make sure that the person who becomes president must be competent to carry out all of the tasks which are detailed in the Constitution. When Parliament said I must become president, they had not the slightest clue of what I was capable of doing and they never asked.”

Mbeki added that the National Dialogue must grapple with this among other issues on the agenda.

“One of the things they must say in the National Dialogue, the intelligentsia, we have to change the manner in which we choose our president.”

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