Two opportunities a year for politicians to defect to other parties would have a disruptive effect on local government, the South African Local Government Association (Salga)warned Parliament this week.
The association’s view – that there should be one “window” for defections in September – seemed to enjoy favour among MPs in Parliament’s justice committee. They were debating four Bills, including two constitutional amendments, designed to allow floor-crossing.
The current proposal is for two 15-day floor-crossing periods in February and September.
With the African National Congress and New National Party strongly in favour, and the Democratic Alliance supporting the principle, floor-crossing legislation in some form is expected to be in place by the end of next month.
The only party opposed was the Inkatha Freedom Party. IFP MP Sybil Seaton argued that it was immoral to introduce the measure now and called for party representation to be settled by elections.
The Independent Electoral Commission’s view, that floor-crossing represents a betrayal of voters’ wishes in a proportional representation system, is unlikely to influence the outcome.
Salga said the proposed February window would be disruptive for councillors just returned from recess who had to start preparing municipal budgets.
Also at issue in the committee was maintaining political stability during defection periods and avoiding constitutional challenges, and whether the proposed threshold of 10% of members who could defect at one time offered sufficient protection against defections for personal gain.
Debate focused on whether the defection period should be banned in the years preceding and following an election, or only in the year before.
The Western Cape is likely to feel the deepest effects, as NNP councillors trapped in the DA might cross the floor in numbers. But the defection provisions may also affect KwaZulu-Natal municipalities, as the ANC and IFP are neck and neck in many councils.
Under the current proposals party discipline would be suspended during the floor-crossing windows. National Council of Provinces members will be prevented from defecting, as they represent provinces. Party mergers and sub-divisions are also allowed.
The ANC-NNP Western Cape government came out in support of the Bills. Provincial local government MEC Willem Doman said the province’s independent legal opinion confirmed the proposals were constitutional.