Only two boxers are left standing in the South African political ring following the recent floor crossing of MPs — the ”bloated African National Congress juggernaut” and an ”agile Democratic Alliance that continues to build its muscle”, DA leader Tony Leon said at the weekend.
Addressing the Liberal Forum on Political Parties and Democracy in Mexico City, Leon said the smaller parties were utterly splintered — the most they could do now was to shout from the gallery.
By the end of the floor-crossing period, the DA had gained a net total of eight seats in the National Assembly. It gained four provincial legislators and lost three, Leon said.
Most of the newcomers were actually re-joining the DA after being forced to leave by their former party, the New National Party (NNP), which walked out of the alliance in 2001 and cut a backroom deal with the government.
Since then, the NNP had been unable to win municipal by-elections and was on its way to electoral extinction. It did not even bother to run a candidate in the Pretoria wards that it had traditionally won.
In the rural town of Swellendam, long considered an NNP stronghold, the NNP had been reduced to third-party status as the DA won an unprecedented victory, with the ANC a close second.
”Floor-crossing shattered the smaller parties,” Leon said. ”Some of their seats went to the DA, but most went to the ruling ANC. A few seats went to new, small, one- or two-person outfits built around maverick personalities. These will struggle to win support from the voters and to operate effectively in the legislatures.”
Leon says the end result was that the DA had consolidated its strength as the leading nationwide opposition party.
”The DA will be strengthened by its new members, who have signed on in order to fulfil the voters’ desire for a real opposition party. In contrast, many of the ANC’s new cheerleaders, by their own admission, are keen to ride the government gravy train. No doubt, the voters will take their revenge on them in next year’s general elections.” – Sapa