Margaret Murray-Benge’s claim (Letters page, The Weekend Sun, October 31) that Māori seats in local government are “no better than apartheid” and “undemocratic” is not only wrong – it is deeply offensive.

Apartheid was a violent system of racial subjugation that denied Black South Africans political rights, stripped land, and killed more than 20,000 people.

To casually invoke that history to oppose modest measures for Māori representation trivialises the suffering of those who lived and died under apartheid and minimises the evil of that regime.

In Aotearoa, Māori representation is not a departure from democracy, it’s a fulfilment of it. Local Government only exists because of the Treaty of Waitangi, which guaranteed Māori ongoing authority, partnership, and political participation.

For more than 150 years, Māori were systematically excluded from local decision-making structures that control land, water, and community wellbeing. Māori seats are a constitutional correction, not a distortion.

Democracy is not frozen in 1852. It evolves as we learn how to govern more fairly. Around the world, representative systems are moving toward greater inclusion, more co-governance, and more deliberative, community-led decision-making.

The Western Bay of Plenty could be leading that evolution rather than retreating behind inaccurate and inflammatory comparisons that divide rather than strengthen our democracy.

Manu Caddie, Tauranga City.