The Democratic Alliance has asked National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete to reverse its loss of five seats in the House during the floor-crossing window period.
A letter by DA chief whip Douglas Gibson, delivered to Mbete on Friday morning, also threatened court action should the party’s bid fail.
Just hours before the window closed at midnight on Thursday, four DA MPs crossed the floor to the African National Congress, while a fifth DA MP defected to form his own party.
The DA contends the five MPs are now ”beached whales”, because the floor-crossing legislation requires that not less than 10% of a party’s MPs must defect before even one may do so.
Following the earlier defection of two MPs to the DA, one each from the Inkatha Freedom Party and the United Democratic Movement, the DA had 52 MPs on Thursday — up from the 50 it had at the start of the floor-crossing window two weeks ago.
The five MPs were 9,615% of the caucus — less than the 10% threshold required to cross the floor legally, Gibson argued in his letter to Mbete.
”As a result hereof, the five affected MPs ceased to be MPs at the time that they became members of their new parties.”
The five both failed to remain members of the DA and to meet the threshold of 10%.
”Five vacancies exist in Parliament, which five vacancies are to be filled by the Democratic Alliance.
”We write this letter to you in order to ascertain when our five new MPs can be sworn in.
”In the interests of the country, Parliament and our party, we believe that it is imperative that the uncertainty surrounding the floor-crossing period ceases as soon as possible.
”We respectfully suggest that our five new members be sworn in at 10am on Monday September 19 2005.”
Gibson asked Mbete to confirm before close of business on Friday that the new MPs would be sworn in at the suggested time, or ”that you will not comply with our request, as set out above”.
”We place on record that we regard this matter as one of urgency, in the national interest, and that failure to respond will be deemed to be a refusal of our request.
”In the event that you refuse to answer this letter, alternatively refuse our request to have our new members sworn in, we shall have no choice but to approach the high court for appropriate relief,” Gibson wrote. — Sapa