South Africa’s highest court has ruled that elected politicians at the municipal level of government may defect to another party without losing their seats.
The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that sections of the floor-crossing legislation passed by Parliament in June were constitutional.
The ruling clears the way for the African National Congress to take control of the Cape Town Unicity Council. However, the ruling will not change the balance of power in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
Had the court approved floor crossing at provincial level, five planned defectors in that legislature would have made the ANC the largest single party in KwaZulu-Natal.
At this stage it is unclear if the five who planned to move to the ANC from the Inkatha Freedom Party, Democratic Alliance and United Democratic Movement will keep their old jobs.
Reading the unanimous judgement, Judge President Arthur Chaskalson said the window period for defections would start on October 8 and continue for 15 days.
The court gave three judgements, two of which were technical and related to the Cape High Court order freezing the constitutional amendments earlier this year.
The judgement on the merits of the case dealt with four acts — two of which were amendments to the Constitution.
Chaskalson said the two constitutional amendments followed all the legal requirements for such amendments and were thus constitutionally valid. They now form part of the constitution and floor-crossing is permitted at municipal level.
Each party has been ordered to pay its own costs. – Sapa