The African National Congress (ANC) was first to benefit from the first floor-crossing window period when a Democratic Alliance (DA) member crossed to the ANC in Kwazulu-Natal on Friday morning.
Enough defectors to the ANC in the province would give the party overall majority in the legislature.
Confirming the loss on Friday, the DA’s Kwazulu-Natal Roger Burrows said that Omie Singh had signed floor-crossing papers to join the ANC.
”I went to Singh’s home on Friday morning after finding him uncontactable. Singh confirmed that he was going to the ANC,” said Burrows.
Burrows said one of Singh’s alleged motives for crossing was his disagreement with the DA’s political rapprochement with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
The ANC’s provincial representative Mtholephi Mthimkulu said at this stage he could not confirm or deny the defection.
”The provincial ANC will call a media briefing on Friday if people come to our organisation”.
In a statement on Friday, Burrows said Singh’s crossing came as no surprise to the DA.
”If he is joined by another three provincial MPLs, he will have effectively handed over the province to the ANC and thus ensured one-party domination not only in Kwazulu-Natal, but in South Africa as a whole”.
The DA is expected to announce the party’s losses and gains on Monday.
The Freedom Front’s Corne Mulder said the FF also lost one member on Friday.
”Gauteng MPL Joseph Chiole left to join the Herstigte Nationale Party, which is a bit surprising to us — we thought he would go to the Conservative Party,” said Mulder.
Meanwhile the United Democratic Movements (UDM) chief whip in parliament said on Friday that the situation was ”pretty stable at the moment”.
”We have not suffered any gains or losses, but are optimistic that we will gain several MPLs,” said Cedric Frolic.
The IFP’s Rev Musa Zondi said his party would also comment on Monday.
”While other parties might be interested in the floor crossing, it does not interest us so much. Besides, it would be practically impossible to get names and figures on a public holiday,” Zondi said on Thursday.
The IFP has forced its members to sign loyalty pledges to the party, which includes an agreement to reimburse the party by R150 000 each, should they defect to another party.
In an apparent attempt to stop defections to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, the IFP recently redeployed some of its MPs to the province and MPLs to the national Parliament.
The three floor-crossing window periods began midnight on Thursday, after being signed by President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday. It paves the way for MPs and MPLs to cross to other political parties during the window period without being disciplined by their former parties.
The second and third periods would be for 15 days each, from September 1 to 15 in the second and fourth year following the date of a national and provincial election. – Sapa