Leaders of four of the largest opposition parties were united on Saturday in their condemnation of floor-crossing and calling for its abolition.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon and his Inkatha Freedom Party and Freedom Front Plus counterparts Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Pieter Mulder, and African Christian Democratic Party MP Steve Swart — representing leader Kenneth Meshoe — shared the Cape Town city hall stage in an anti-defection rally.
The DA and IFP both recently tabled private member’s Bills in the National Assembly in a bid to do away with constitutional provisions allowing for public representatives to cross-the-floor to another party without losing their seats.
Addressing a near-capacity crowd in the city hall, Leon admitted the DA had initially supported floor-crossing, believing it would increase the power of the voters.
”However, we have now seen that floor-crossing undermines ethical principles. We have seen that it destroys leaders, splinters the opposition, and cheats voters.”
Public representatives were not crossing-the-floor on principles, but rather because the largest party, the African National Congress, used taxpayers’ money and comfortable jobs to lure people, he said.
Illustrating this, Leon said of the 32 New National Party Cape Town city councillors who crossed to the ANC in 2002, 28 got top posts, with the accompanying benefits and larger salaries.
At the end of the day, the taxpayer footed the bill for ”this bribery”.
Leon contended that the ruling party would now also support an end to floor-crossing because ”there is a very real prospect that part of the ANC could break-away” at the next floor-crossing window.
The party was divided into two camps — one supporting President Thabo Mbeki and the other former deputy president Jacob Zuma — and the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions were talking of contesting elections on their own, he said.
Buthelezi said floor-crossing had ”struck a devastating blow to our fledgling democracy”.
”It has really betrayed the people’s right to choose. I therefore believe that we have joined hands as opposition party leaders and as South African patriots, to appeal to the governing party to join hands with us in correcting that which we did wrong as Parliament when we passed this legislation.”
The IFP had pointed out from the beginning that the legislation permitting floor-crossing had nothing to do with the principle of ”the freedom to choose”.
”But that it was introduced for what were patently expedient reasons. Political expediency dictated it.”
By crossing-the-floor, public representatives ”virtually undermine the very system that they are supposed to sustain”.
”It has become a basis of corruption in our corruption-ridden land because people are lured with cheque-book politics and patronage to defect,” Buthelezi said.
Mulder expressed similar sentiments, and said it was in the interests of South Africa and democracy that floor-crossing be scrapped as soon as possible.
”President Mbeki asked in Parliament that a public debate on floor-crossing should take place. We will take the debate from here further until the floor-crossing legislation has been scrapped,” he said.
Swart said it was a cardinal principle of the proportional representation system that elected members vacated their seats when they resigned from their party or lost their party membership.
It was clear that floor-crossing threatened multi-party democracy.
”The ANC has waged a feeding frenzy on smaller parties during floor-crossing periods. The legislation is clearly stacked against smaller parties,” Swart said. – Sapa