The opposition Democratic Alliance will on Tuesday submit a private member’s Bill in Parliament that seeks to amend the Constitution so as to disallow public representatives from becoming a member of another party while retaining their seats — so-called ”floor-crossing”, according to DA head Tony Leon.
Leon said in a statement on Monday that the DA had become convinced the Bill was necessary because it had become clear that the original intention of floor crossing — to weaken the hold of party bosses over public representatives — had been ”perverted” by the way it had been enacted by the ruling African National Congress.
”Instead of creating a class of independently-minded public representatives, floor-crossing has succeeded only in encouraging the lowest form of cheque-book politics, increasing the ANC’s dominance and fragmenting the opposition,” Leon said.
”Not only does floor-crossing as currently practised tend to unfairly benefit the larger parties, it also alienates voters, many of whom feel that their democratic right to choose their own public representatives is circumvented. The inevitable upshot is increased voter apathy and disengagement with the political process.”
Leon said the DA believed it was in the interest of all parties to work together to end floor-crossing.
”We hope that the ANC will not wait until it faces a mass defection from one of its major factions before it decides to throw its weight behind the move to repeal the floor-crossing legislation in its current form.”
He added that the DA would also launch a multi-pronged campaign to drum up public support to put a stop to floor-crossing.
”With pressure from the public and opposition parties, we are confident that the ANC will see reason and agree to work with other parties to repeal the floor-crossing legislation,” Leon concluded. — I-Net Bridge