Cape Board election found to be “flawed”

TALI FEINBERG

The panel, known as the Seligson Commission – headed by Advocate Milton Seligson SC, with Dr Sally Frankenthal and Hilton Saven – submitted a 22-page report after five months of investigations into the board’s election of its Cape council, which took place at its biannual conference in August.

The only two people voted off the board at that conference were women, both of whom had held senior leadership positions and were highly respected.

The report recommended urgent and far-reaching Jewish communal electoral reform. It ordered “the immediate and unconditional co-option” of the two women who had been excluded from the board in the election, which it said included “discrepancies” and “other voting irregularities”.

The panel characterised the behaviour of the outgoing chairman of the Cape Board, Eric Marx, as “misconduct”. It said he had “engineered” a delegate substitution that “resulted in his son acting as a delegate and casting a vote which was irregular and unauthorised”.

Marx stepped down from his roles as ex-officio of the Cape Board and treasurer of the national board when these allegations surfaced in November. However, the national board stated that Marx would be able to return to his role as national treasurer at the SA Jewish Board of Deputies after six months – as part of a settlement agreement entered into by the Cape council.

“Upon Marx’s resignation as national treasurer, the national executive committee (NEC) elected me as his replacement, which function I have fulfilled since November 2017,” said current national board chair Shaun Zagnoev. “This appointment was not intended to be on an indefinite basis. The plan is to find an alternative candidate to be national treasurer over the near term. 

“As part of its deliberations in this regard, the NEC will consider the findings of the Seligson report on Eric’s eligibility to be re-elected to a national position.”

For those who fought for an investigation into the Cape Board’s election, the Seligson report was “a triumph for transparency, good governance and women’s voices”, said Gilad Stern. He was one of the key players, along with a group of women and community organisations, who ensured that the panel was set up.

“However, it’s tragic that the Board of Deputies needs an independent commission to police itself. The present board should take heed of the fact that, as public representatives, they’re expected to be honest as a default.

“The underlying issue which led to the election shenanigans was the ban on women singing at the Holocaust memorial ceremony,” he explained.

“It seemed that some men want to silence women, whether by banning them from singing or by engineering them off the leadership of the Jewish community, by hook or by crook.

“In 2016, I took the Jewish Board of Deputies to court and we ensured that women’s voices will not be silenced.

“And now the independent panel has affirmed that a crude attempt in 2017 to exclude women from leadership is unacceptable,” he added.

Indeed, as far back as 2016, the leadership of the SA Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) wrote: “The ban [on women singing] favours the beliefs of a small group of powerful people over the prevailing beliefs of our constituents.”

Stern said he would continue to keep a close eye on whether the Cape Board implements the Seligson Commission’s recommendations, which include appointing an independent committee to review its constitution and implement new electoral processes.

“As South Africa is finally moving towards honest political governance, it’s important that South Africa’s Jewish community not be ‘captured’ by extremists. That’s why we are vigilant, and why we pushed for an independent panel to investigate violations of Jewish communal governance,” Stern concluded.

Errol Anstey, a community leader who pushed for an investigation, said religious agendas and communal governance should not be mixed. He is satisfied with the findings of the panel, which “followed the demands that we made”.

The panel found that the Cape Board’s constitution had not been revised since 2004, and its delegations list had not been updated since 2012. This meant that delegates voting for the new Cape Board were not representative of the diversity of the Cape Town Jewish community.

In addition, new affiliates such as Sinai Academy and Cape Town Torah High were informally co-opted to vote, without following due process.

During the actual election, additional ballot forms were prepared and available at the event in case of ‘spoilt papers’ – “which we find unusual, to say the least”, stated the panel. “In our view, there was clearly insufficient internal control over the entire voting process.”

In considering declaring the election invalid, the panel said that the board’s constitution was “in urgent need of revision” and that it would be “counter-productive” to have a new election using the old constitution.

It advised that the next election should take place in 2019 using “an electoral process that is free and fair, including a voting system that is properly monitored and audited by an independent body”.

The panel stipulated that “Ms Li Boiskin and Ms Beverley May serve with immediate effect, as full members of the board, until its tenure expires in 2019”, which would be a “balanced and equitable outcome” to its findings.

In response to the report, May said: “The most important finding of the commission is that the community needs to review how it elects its leadership to ensure equitable representation.”

Former Cape Board director David Jacobson said that while the Board of Deputies had always been one of the most democratic organisations in the community, “there is always room for improvement”.

He added that this was an excellent opportunity to explore other models of voting to ensure a democratic process that would be rigorous and inclusive. Calling the case an alert to all Jewish organisations to “re-investigate their own democratic processes”, Jacobson said: “Others should take note and follow the Cape Board’s example.”

A former member of the Cape Board, Greg Flash, said the only way forward was for the board to follow a ‘one Jew, one vote’ model of election, for ethical and practical reasons. “Using affiliates is too complicated and leaves too much room for error.”

The Cape Board has already held a meeting to go through the report in greater detail and to begin the process of implementing its findings.

“We understand that some delegates who voted in the 2017 elections may feel that their voices have not been heard, but it is now incumbent on all of us to move towards greater unity,” stated Cape Board chair Rael Kaimowitz.

“We require this at a time when we face significant challenges as a community. We should not allow internal divisions from within to derail our resolve in dealing with these.

“We are steadfast, as we have been since being elected, in fulfilling our essential mandate and objectives of representing the entire Jewish community in the Western Cape.”