With only hours to go before the close, at midnight on Friday, of the 15-day window period for MPs and MPLs to cross the floor to the party of their choice without losing their seats, the National Assembly has undergone a substantial change.
Some provincial legislatures have also seen significant shifts in their composition, most notably KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. The National Assembly now has no less than five new political parties on its benches.
But, the African National Congress (ANC) has consolidated its position as the majority party, gaining nine MPs from the United Democratic Movement (UDM), taking its numbers from 266 to 275 — a comfortable two-thirds majority in the 400-member House.
The biggest loser was Bantu Holomisa’s UDM, which now has only four MPs remaining, after it led the Constitutional Court challenge to prevent the floor-crossing legislation becoming law.
The UDM’s defectors included Holomisa’s deputy, Dr Gerhard Koornhof, and Mogoboya Ramodike, who formed his own party.
The New National Party (NNP) of Western Cape premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk also lost 10 MPs — nine to the Democratic Alliance and one to the African Christian Democratic Party — but gained one from the DA and another from the Inkatha Freedom Party, for a tally of 20 MPs, a net loss of eight.
The IFP also lost two other MPs, one who also formed her own party, and the other, Deputy Chairman of Committees Farouk Cassim, who announced on Friday afternoon that he would be leading the newly established Peace and Justice Congress in Parliament.
Thus, the IFP now has 31 instead of 34 members in the House.
The official opposition DA, which started the window period with 38 MPs, now has 46 — 48 if its two Federal Alliance partners are included.
The Pan Africanist Congress’ Patricia de Lille left to form the Independent Democrats, reducing the PAC representation to two MPs.
The ACDP increased its numbers from six to seven, while the Freedom Front and the United Christian Democratic Party retained their three seats each.
The Afrikaner Unity Movement lost its sole MP, Cassie Aucamp, to the National Action, but the Azanian People’s Organisation and the Minority Front’s lone representatives both remained loyal to their parties.
The other two new parties in the House are the African Independent Movement, and the Alliance for Democracy and Prosperity.
In the finely balanced 80-member KwaZulu-Natal legislature, the ANC has 35 seats, the IFP 32 and the DA six.
The NNP and the MF have two each, and the UDM, the ACDP, and the newly formed Peace and Development Party hold one seat each.
In the Western Cape legislature, four defections — three of them from its ally, the NNP — gave the ANC an outright majority.
The ANC now has 22 of the 42 seats in the legislature, with the NNP 11, the DA seven, and the ACDP two. – Sapa