A bid by the African National Congress (ANC) to secure continued protection for five provincial-level defectors who jumped the gun has been rejected by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
The ANC had asked the court to prevent three other parties in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature from replacing the defectors when the deadline allowing floor-crossing at local government level expires at midnight.
The five — two each from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), and one from the United Democratic Movement (UDM) — would have given the ANC, in co-operation with the New National Party (NNP) and the Minority Front, a clear majority of 42 in the 80-seat legislature.
The Constitutional Court ruled on October 5 that while floor-crossing at local government level could go ahead, the legislation governing national and provincial-level crossing was defective.
Its ruling was understood to protect the position of the five, only until the expiry of the local-level window period, which ends at midnight.
However if they are now replaced, their successors’ tenure could be short-lived.
The amended draft bills to allow crossing at provincial and national level, which have already been published in a Government Gazette, will have a retroactive effect.
According to the justice ministry, the bills provide for MPs and MPLs who jumped the gun to get their positions back.
The five announced their defection on June 21, hours after the UDM secured a high court interdict in Cape Town suspending the defection laws. – Sapa