The suspension of the defection window period pending a Cape High Court judgement caused havoc for politicians and the media on Friday who had braced themselves for an early start to MPs, MPLs and local councillors switching party loyalty without losing their seats.
The court is only likely to sit on Monday.
The SABC had to pull the plug on a special live broadcast from Parliament at 6am on Friday where the New National Party (NNP) was to have paraded some local government councillors who had defected to the party.
The Democratic Party (DP) was forced to cancel its press conference where it was hoping to trumpet its ”merger” with the Democratic Alliance (DA) at national and provincial level.
Some MPs who had informed their party that they had defected to another, found they had jumped the gun, and risked losing their seats.
At least one NNP MP who planned to defect to the DA is known to have acted prematurely. Had the window period been open he would have been protected from any action from his party and would have been assured of his seat.
The window for floor crossings was to have begun at one minute past midnight, but was delayed after the United Democratic Movement (UDM) launched a late night application in the Cape High Court.
Other politicians, including MPs and local government councillors, have been named in some newspapers as likely defectors, resulting in irate phone calls to journalists, including those in the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
Those named may find themselves having to do a lot of explaining to their parties, who are bound to question their loyalty. Meanwhile, the president’s office was on Friday accused of misleading the public.
Presidential representative Bheki Khumalo issued an early morning statement saying a full bench of the Cape High court would sit at 9.30am and that defections could continue in other provinces as planned, since the court could not bind other provinces.
He was criticised in the National Assembly by UDM MP Annelize van Wyk. National Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala warned MPs at the start of Friday’s sitting not to complete any defection forms until a full bench of the Cape High Court could be convened and judgement was given.
Giving notice of a motion, Van Wyk said the interim relief granted by the court was an urgent application for an interdict, pending a challenge in the Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court will be asked to rule on the constitutionality of the legislation.
The UDM condemned Khumalo’s statements that the effect of the Cape High Court ruling was not applicable to other provinces.
”To the best of (our) knowledge South Africa is a unitary state, where the ruling of a High Court is applicable to the country as a whole,” Van Wyk said.
The UDM was exercising its legal right to protect the rights of the voting public, she said.
Also giving notice of a motion, the DA’s Sandy Kalyan said that since the floor-crossing had been suspended, the ANC and the NNP in the Western Cape should hold an election in the province to give voters an opportunity to express their will.
Kalyan urged ward councillors around South Africa who wished to leave their respective parties to rather resign and fight by-elections.
It emerged on Friday morning after lawyers for the UDM and the State held a meeting with Judge President John Hlophe in his chambers, that a full bench might only be convened on Monday.
The UDM’s attorney Callie Albertyn on Friday morning said that a date had not yet been set for the full bench to meet. There was a possibility that such a bench could be convened on Monday, despite the court going into recess that day.
Albertyn said the case would ”definitely not be heard today (Friday).” – Sapa