Former justice of the Constitutional Court and the chairperson of the electoral commission who delivered the 1994 election, Justice Johann Kriegler, says he believes the African National Congress (ANC) will relinquish power if they lose at the polls.

Delivering the Helen Suzman Foundation's annual Helen Suzman memorial lecture at the University of Pretoria's business school in Illovo, Johannesburg, Kriegler indicated that he did not believe that the ANC would pursue illegal means to hang on to power if it loses a future national election.

"I'm not an apologist for the ANC, heaven help me, I'm not even a supporter. But I do have confidence in the integrity of the basic leadership of the party, that if they lose at the polls, they will go," he said.

Kriegler added that he also had faith that South Africans would not accept any gerrymandering with election results.

"I don't think the South African public will put up with Trump tricks… if we want to get rid of them, if you want to get rid of them in the ordinary way (through the ballot box)… I don't think they will not go if voted out. I don't think their own rank and file will allow them (to subvert democracy). I am not a prognosticator, I can only go on the probabilities, and that's my guess."

Kriegler, who turns 90 on 27 November, is a former judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal and the High Court, and was appointed to the bench of the Constitutional Court by then-president Nelson Mandela in 1994. He was also chairperson of the electoral commission that oversaw the country’s first democratic election in 1994.

In his remarks Kriegler defended the country's electoral system, rejecting pleas for amendments to the system of proportional representation.

Calls for changes to the system are rooted in many people's frustration over the lack of accountability of public representatives, and a feeling that a constituency-based system might improve accountability.

There was, however, no real evidence for that, Kriegler said. Exhaustive studies were conducted to determine which system would be best for South Africa, and he still believes the country's electoral system is suitable.

Kriegler said that blame for the lack of accountability and the inability of Parliament and MPs to discharge their functions efficiently was not the fault of the electoral system, but the fault of people and MPs themselves. The ANC had been returned to power repeatedly because that's what people want, he said.

Former president Jacob Zuma was allowed to perpetrate State capture because Parliament was unable to exact accountability. It was human failure that led to State capture, not the electoral system or the justice system.

"The law cannot generate the necessary political will for ANC MPs to do their job," he said.

"The law doesn't change politics; politics changes the law."

He told the audience that if they believed that a change of government was necessary, if South Africans wanted a new government, then they had to involve themselves in the political process.

"The fate of our democracy does not lie in intellectual debate about the system…it is about getting your hands dirty, walking the streets, canvassing on behalf of a political party if you are unhappy about the state of our country," he added.

Kriegler retired as chairperson of Freedom Under Law, a non-governmental organisation that promotes the rule of law and independence of the judiciary, in August.