Forty-two municipal councillors around the country have crossed the floor to the Democratic Alliance (DA) — mainly from the defunct New National Party — DA member of Parliament and spokesperson Helen Zille said on Tuesday.
The two week window period for councillors to change parties without losing their seats ends on September 15.
In a members’ statement in the National Assembly, Zille said floor-crossing was a feature of most developed democracies because it allowed public representatives to cross the floor on matters of principle to uphold the mandate from their voters.
However, in South Africa it was being used for different reasons — to enable members of the NNP to ”abandon their voters’ mandate, and undertake a mass migration to the feeding troughs of power and patronage, in the ANC”, she said.
”The only good thing that can be said is that the remains of the NNP will now cease to be a feature of our politics.”
The negative feature of floor crossing was the way it was managed in South Africa — over 14 days each year and requiring a 10% minimum of any caucus to change parties. This effectively cleared the decks for a one-party state.
”This is what it is intended to achieve, and it will be a disaster for South Africa.
”For this reason, we are extremely gratified that 42 councillors have resisted the lure of patronage politics, and decided to build the ranks of a strong, principled and effective opposition by joining the DA,” Zille said. – Sapa