The National Assembly will be abuzz Tuesday afternoon as old faces are seen in new political parties which means that positions on the brown benches are expected to be swopped about — the result of nearly four days of defections during the first official defection period for Members of Parliament.
The National Assembly is scheduled to begin at 2pm on Tuesday afternoon to debate the foreign affairs appropriation Bill after which there will be party responses to last week’s announcement by Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin on black economic empowerment.
But all eyes will be on the nine defectors from the New National Party who have joined the Democratic Alliance. The DA caucus will increase in size from 38 to 47 while the NNP caucus will drop from 28 to 19. It is not clear at this stage if three defectors understood to have left the United Democratic Movement will already be allocated new benches in ruling African National Congress ranks.
One Inkatha Freedom Party MP, Theresa Millin, has defected to join a new party — the African Independent Party. This will mean that there will be 14 political parties represented in parliament.
Patricia de Lille, who has been an MP since 1994, is expected to take her seat on the Pan Africanist Congress benches for the last time with speculation rife that she will be starting a new party. She is known to be unhappy with her party which has been hit by factional in-fighting in recent months.
The defection period ends on Friday April 4. During this 15-day period for defections, MPs and members of the provincial legislatures can cross parties without losing their seats in Parliament or the legislatures. – I-Net Bridge