Marianne Merten
The Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party diverged sharply on “floor-crossing” legislation approved by the Cabinet this week, underlining the different impact the package of laws may have on different parties.
The proposed measure stems from last year’s split in the DA and the subsequent co-operation pact between the New National Party and the African National Congress. It would allow public representatives to defect to other parties during twice-yearly, 15-day “windows of opportunity”.
In a low-key response, the DA’s Tertius Delport welcomed the shift from earlier proposals that would have given President Thabo Mbeki the right to decide on defection windows. However, the IFP slammed the proposals as “immoral”, emphasising that they would subvert the will of the electorate.
Much of the reaction is linked to political battles in the municipalities and provinces where most changes are expected.
Possibly the most visible impact would be in the Cape Town unicity, where if 24 NNP members rejoin their party, the balance of power will swing from the DA. Of the 107 DA councillors, 70 belong to the NNP, while the ANC has 77 seats in the 200-strong council.
However, it is far from clear that NNP councillors will leave the DA in large numbers.
The DA believes NNP representation in the national Parliament, and other levels of government, will be severely dented. The party’s chief whip in Parliament, Douglas Gibson, claimed this week that NNP MPs were “queuing up” to defect to his party.
In addition, the floor-crossing provisions would allow for formal recognition of the alliance in Parliament, where the Democratic Party still operates because the DA was formed after the 1999 election.
The defection laws may also affect closely contested municipalities throughout KwaZulu-Natal. It is understood several IFP members have already approached the ANC, especially in larger councils like Durban. There is also a potential threat to the IFP’s position in the province, which it runs in coalition with the ANC and where it has the premiership.
The IFP and ANC are effectively tied in the legislature, the IFP having 34 seats, the ANC 32 and the ANC’s Minority Front ally two.
A perceived flaw in the proposed laws is that they may interfere with the balance of party power as determined by elections. Under the current electoral system, South Africans vote for a party rather than an individual in national and provincial elections, while the party vote is combined with ward voting at municipal level.
“The whole problem of floor-crossing is that it defies to a large extent the electoral will,” said Richard Calland, head of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa’s political information and monitoring service. However, politicians should be allowed to take account of changes in public opinion, he said.
Currently envisaged are two annual periods for defections the first 15 days of February and September unless either falls within a year of a national election. No defections in municipalities are allowed in the 12 months after a poll. Party discipline is suspended during these window periods.
It is unlikely the defection provisions will come into law before mid-year, as they require constitutional amendments. Such changes must be published for 30 days in the Government Gazette before they can be formally tabled in Parliament.
In the circumstances the first ever opportunity to cross the floor will come in the 15 days after the president signs the laws into effect.
At least 10% of party political representatives must agree to change sides before they can defect. This threshhold is intended as a safety mechanism against opportunistic defections caused by, for example, power struggles within parties.
The IFP this week remained opposed to the defection proposals unless the electoral system is amended to cater for some form of constituency voting.
IFP national spokesman Musa Zondi said seats in government belonged to the party, not to an individual. “The motives for these laws are opportunistic, even if the ANC wants us to believe our democracy has matured. It’s laughable we are hardly 10 years old.”
The view is shared by United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, who described the measure as “political thuggery” and said smaller political parties stood to lose the most.
However, the DA has reviewed its stance following the redrafting of earlier proposals giving the president discretion on defection windows.
Delport said the key concern was that the defection provisions should reflect changes at grassroots. It was “unfair to freeze a political situation for five years” between elections, he said.
Without elaborating, NNP deputy executive director Daryl Swanepoel said there was “no doubt the vast majority of NNP people” would return to the party fold. “DA councils in the Western Cape will fall and they will fall to an ANC-NNP arrangement similar to the provincial government”.
The package of legislation comprises four Bills, two of which amend the Constitution. One constitutional amendment clears the way for floor-crossing at local government level through the insertion of a new clause; the other deals with the procedure to reconstitute the National Council of Provinces should a large number of provincial representatives defect.
The other two Bills are an amendment to the Municipal Structures Amendment Act and the Loss or Retention of Membership of National and Provincial Legislatures Bill, which Parliament is empowered by the Constitution to pass as an ordinary law.
The spokesman for the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Paul Setsetse, said the government was confident the Bills would withstand constitutional scrutiny. “We have done the necessary checks and balances. We have done the necessary spade work on the ground.”