South African President Thabo Mbeki has opened the door to a review of floor-crossing legislation — which allows MPs, members of the provincial legislatures and local government councillors to defect from their political parties — but said the matter was ”eminently political” and should be dealt with by MPs and not the executive.
Noting that floor-crossing legislation had originally been supported by most parties — including the then Democratic Party (now the official opposition Democratic Alliance), Mbeki said MPs had to consider whether the conditions that necessitated the legislation in the first place had changed.
”I believe the political parties should engage this [matter],” he told MPs on Thursday.
His remarks were in response to official opposition leader Tony Leon — of the DA — who noted that The Washington Post and Kaizer Foundation had found in a survey that nearly two-thirds of South Africans disapproved of floor-crossing. Leon asked whether the government would amend the legislation.
Mbeki was facing questions in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon.
Leon acknowledged that his party had supported the defection legislation previously, but noted: ”I would think you would agree with me that while the views of the legislators are important … when the electorate has the opportunity to express itself … it was noteworthy that in the city of Cape Town and Pretoria not a single floor-crosser who offered himself or herself for re-election was endorsed by the voters.”
Leon was referring to the local government elections on March 1 this year.
In the last floor-crossing period in September last year, 25 MPs changed political parties. The ruling African National Congress gained 14 of these seats from the opposition, taking its representation in the 400-seat National Assembly up to 293 members. These 14 included six from the New National Party, two from the African Christian Democratic Party, two from the Independent Democrats and four from the DA.
Floor-crossing legislation allows that twice in a five-year period members of the three levels of government are able to join other parties or form a new party without losing their seats. In terms of the legislation, however, at least 10% of a party’s public representatives must be prepared to defect for them to keep their seats. This effectively protects larger political parties.
At local government level the DA lost the only metropolitan government — Cape Town — in its control in 2002. It regained the city, albeit leading a new multi-party government, in the March poll.
Last Tuesday, Leon had indicated that he planned to confront Mbeki on the floor-crossing issue this week.
Speaking at the Africa Dialogue lecture series at the University of Pretoria last Tuesday, Leon said the practice has become almost universally detested by voters.
”Opinion polls conducted before the recent local government election revealed that 73% of eligible voters intended to vote against so-called ‘crosstitutes’.”
Leon blames the ANC for ”shamelessly” using public posts, salaries and perks to woo floor-crossers from other parties.
”In Parliament last year, DA MP Dan Maluleke was instantly made an ANC whip when he crossed over. One DA MP, who refused to cross, was offered a deputy minister’s post,” Leon said.
He said while the DA initially supported the floor-crossing Bill, it had safeguards that were removed from the legislation.
”There was, for instance, a need for would-be floor-crossers to demonstrate to the Independent Electoral Commission that their party had made a fundamental break with its past policies,” Leon said.
He said the DA has introduced a private members’ Bill to change the floor-crossing system, but the ANC refuses to allow the Bill to be debated. — I-Net Bridge and Sapa