A New National Party (NNP) member of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Piet Matthee has had his job saved by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC).
In terms of an agreement Matthee is keeping his seat which fell to the ANC during the defection period in March. In terms of a resolution passed in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature Matthee will take up a seat on behalf of the ANC — but remain an NNP member.
Matthee on Wednesday explained that because Sipho Mkhize, a NNP member of the legislature crossed to the ANC, the NNP would have lost its representation in the six-person team from KwaZulu Natal in the council — where it had been entitled to one seat.
The ANC would have had two of the seats, the IFP three, and the DA one in the KwaZulu-Natal delegation.
The seats in the council — made up of 54 permanent delegates from the nine provinces — are made up in terms of the proportion of support the various parties have in the legislatures.
Without the arrangement Matthee also would have lost the post of chairperson of the Members’ legislative proposals committee. He acknowledged that his post had been saved because of the arrangement between the ANC and NNP which since December 2001 have cooperated.
Matthee has been in politics as a National Party (now NNP) member since 1987 when he was elected MP for Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal. He then served in the President’s Council from 1989 to mid-1990 when he was elected in a tight race against the then official opposition Conservative Party in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal — a few months after the 2 February 1990 reform speech of then President FW de Klerk.
He was elected to the National Assembly in 1994 and then to the NCOP in 1999.
The 15-day defection period allowing politicians to cross the floor did not apply to the NCOP except indirectly. It allowed politicians to cross the floor without losing their seats in the nine legislatures and the National Assembly.
It is understood that the position of a further NNP member of the NCOP is in the balance. Freddie Adams, one of two NNP representatives from the Western Cape, has also apparently lost his seat technically to the ANC. But it is understood that a deal will be announced soon between the two parties to allow him to keep his seat. – I-Net Bridge