The controversial defection law was put on ice on Monday pending a Constitutional Court decision, leaving some politicians in limbo and others scrabbling for survival.
A full bench of the Cape High Court on Monday afternoon ruled in favour of the United Democratic Movement’s (UDM) application that the floor crossing legislation be suspended until the Constitutional Court ruled on the matter.
In a short judgement read out by Judge President John Hlophe the court ruled that the UDM should make its application to the Constitutional Court no later than June 27. The matter could possibly be heard in the first week of July.
Earlier on Monday, the African National Congress’s (ANC) political opponents also scored a High Court victory in KwaZulu-Natal when five defectors to the ANC were barred from sitting in the provincial legislature until the Constitutional Court ruling.
On Friday, two Democratic Alliance (DA) MPLs and two Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) MPLs defected to the ANC; they were later joined by the United Democratic Movement’s sole MPL in the province.
However the parties maintained that the Cape interdict meant the MPLs were not protected by the defection legislation and that they had accordingly vacated their seats in the legislature and threatened to fill their places with party loyalists.
The ANC on Sunday got a Pietermaritzburg High Court order preventing anyone being sworn in their place.
On Monday, the DA, the IFP and the UDM were successful in getting the Sunday order altered. The amended order effectively prevented the five who had defected to the ANC from sitting, participating, or voting in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature, until the Constitutional Court’s findings.
The UDM’s sole KwaZulu-Natal MPL Sam Nxumalo at the weekend joined the IFP’s Mike Tarr and Maurice McKenzie and the DA’s Belinda Scott and Tim Jeebodh in switching allegiance to the ANC.
However his party reacted immediately by declaring it intended to ”redeploy” him to the party’s provincial headquarters.
Meanwhile, nine DA Western Cape councillors — caught off-side last week when their names appeared on a revised New National Party (NNP) list before the defection laws came into effect — will on Tuesday ask the Cape High Court to declare they are still members of the DA.
The applicants will also ask that their municipal council seats not be declared vacant by the DA, the chief electoral officer or the relevant municipal officer, their lawyer said.
The DA claims the nine ceased to be members on June 19, when their names were published in the official provincial and national lists of NNP candidates.
It is understood the DA received legal advice that the councillors were the authors of their own misery because their names appeared in the gazette before the defection window period began.
Under the DA’s constitution, a member automatically ceases to b a member once he or she joins another party.
However, the lawyer for the councillors said the DA had acted against his clients based on the publication of their names by a third person. The councillors were not even asked for their version of events.
The majority of the councillors affected are from the Cape Town unicity — currently controlled by the DA. The ANC and NNP need 24 DA councillors to defect to either party to take control of the city.
Speaking in Cape Town on Monday afternoon, New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk he was very concerned about KwaZulu-Natal, where the IFP has expressed fears of a resurgence in political violence.
He said NNP KwaZulu-Natal leader Renier Schoeman had been approached by ”a number” of parties in the province, and had also made approaches himself.
The NNP had an existing agreement with the ANC, and if the opportunity arose, it would honour that agreement. It did not have an agreement with the IFP.
”Of course it does not preclude the possibility that we as the NNP may put on the agenda the possibility of including other parties in government as minority partners… Now I’m talking strictly on behalf of the NNP,” he said.
With support from the NNP and the Minority Front, the ANC, with the defections, will have an absolute majority in the legislature. – Sapa