Chairperson, I would like to thank all the participants in this debate for their support for the Bill. However, I would like to respond to a few comments that were made. I would like to start with a comment made by the hon Groenewald. I completely agree with him that presiding officers need to be properly trained to understand the detail of the law, so I think the Independent Electoral Commission will make sure that that happens.
I also agree with him that the recommendations that everybody from the DA is talking about are not necessarily the best recommendations for democracy. I do think he is right; we might just take you on, and you will disappear. He is right that the ANC will get much more than it gets now if we go the route that we are proposing, and smaller parties will disappear. Then you will turn around like you did with the floor-crossing and say that the ANC introduced this, and that it is antidemocracy. I think I really agree with the hon Groenewald on that.
I would also like to say to the hon Kganyago that I am sure that the IEC will ensure that the special votes are carried out in a manner that has integrity and fairness, and that there will be no problems. Hon Balindlela, I am not quite sure what you mean when you say that you hope that there will be no unintended consequences. The only unintended consequence that I can see is probably the further disintegration of Cope. [Laughter.] Other than that, I see no other unintended consequence.
Then coming to the hon Mnqasela, I think ... akekho umuntu ozonixhopha. Ningahle ningawatholi lawa mavoti eniwafunayo kodwa nizobe ningaxhoshwanga kodwa abantu abavotayo abazobe benganifuni. [Ihlombe.] [... no person will cheat you. You might not succeed in getting the votes that you want - not because the process has been fraudulent, but because the voters do not want you. [Applause.]]
Coming to the hon Lovemore, I just want to say that I agree with her when it comes to making sure that accessibility of the voting stations is ensured, and I hope that the IEC will make sure that the voting stations are accessible to all the voters. There I completely agree with you, but I think the IEC is wise not to take your advice on carrying out voter education that says that voters must take out the ruling party, because that is not their prerogative, and they then would not be doing what their mandate says they should do. I think they are wise to have said they will not do that.
When it comes to the mixture of constituencies and proportional representation, I think the ruling party did agree to that in local government, because that is where you need it most, and it is there, so I don't know what the complaint is about. When it comes to the national sphere, I do think that you can't just look at one aspect and say it will give more accountability. For all the other aspects that you mentioned, such as inclusiveness and inclusivity, when you then debate, you exclude that part which is very important.
The electoral law, as it stands in terms of proportional representation, is actually very good for inclusivity, and that is why we have so many parties here. If we didn't have it, we wouldn't have so many parties. Maybe we would have had three at most, and the others would disappear.
Secondly, the Constitution says there should be equality and we are building a nonracial, nonsexist South Africa. Part of the reason why the ruling party is able to fulfil its mandate when it comes to that aspect of gender equality is because of the proportional representation system, and I think it is important to keep to that. It is not only about gender; it is about youth, people with disabilities and so on. The electoral law is able to include them in our Parliament, precisely because it is using the proportional representation system.
It is also important that parliamentarians do not become captive of a particular lobby group that funds their election, because if we start going constituency by constituency, many people will end up being funded, as we see in big democracies: funding by this organisation and that organisation, and they end up becoming captive of a particular lobby group.
I think there is no problem with what the ruling party has accepted and, of course, recommendations are recommendations - they are either accepted or not accepted. There is nothing that says that when something has been recommended, the ruling party is under an obligation to accept it, but I can assure you that the ruling party has examined the recommendations, applied its mind and has come to the conclusion it did very wisely. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time.