The IFP hails the formal submission of South Africa to the African Peer Review mechanism (APRM) peer review process by President Thabo Mbeki.

“As a force for stability, growth and development, the IFP embraces the APRM. As a moral and constructive alternative to the ANC, we welcome our oversight role in this self-assessment exercise,” said Sibongile Nkomo MPL in her presentation on constitutional democracy to the Joint Ad hoc Committee on Democracy and Good Political Governance at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

The IFP sees the APRM’s peer review process as an opportunity to celebrate South Africa’s transition from institutionalised oppression to non-racial freedom. “At the same time, we wish to highlight the obvious danger of South Africa slipping away from the democratic theory into the post-colonial practice of procedural democracy,” said Nkomo.

Nkomo also said:

“The IFP has always viewed democracy as a living process rather than a set of institutions. If our democratic institutions are to function to democratic ends, there has to be a palpable sense of political leadership on day-to-day issues within an agenda set by the electorate.

“The IFP credits the ANC with the human-rights culture that symbolises the new South Africa. We only wish this culture would rediscover a new sense of non-racialism and find a more honest expression in the implementation of government policy such as the BEE.

“The IFP warns that political competition in South Africa has been eroded by political practice. We remain a staunch advocate of electoral choice. We are on offer on the political market as a self-help and self-reliance driven alternative to the corporatist and interventionist ANC.

“The IFP warns against the procedural rule of law. This happens when the outward form of the law is maintained but the respect for the law is gone and people feel only the need to make a pretense of being ruled by the law while ignoring its spirit.

“The IFP will support the APRM’s peer review process if it, with all due honesty, exposes the danger of procedural democracy by according the South African public the role it should play in democracy and good political governance.”