Parliament’s planned discussion on floor-crossing, called for by President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation address earlier this year, will take place from September 19, it was announced on Wednesday.
Briefing the media, the chairperson of Parliament’s standing committee on private members’ legislative proposals and special petitions, Vytjie Mentor, said there was no way discussions could take place without public hearings on the matter.
”There is a lot of public interest, and interest of the electorate, as well as media interest. We therefore thought, as a committee, it would be necessary to hold public hearings on the matter,” she said.
However, she had been disappointed to find out the rules of Parliament did not allow the committee to hold public hearings.
The committee was engaging Parliament because it thought it was of critical importance that the public should have a say in a matter that affected the electorate.
”There is no way in which we can sit here alone as members of Parliament and determine an issue that directly affects the electorate.”
Mentor referred to a private member’s Bill submitted by Inkatha Freedom Party MP Koos van der Merwe.
”There has been a Bill proposed by [him] that we look into the issue of floor-crossing. The gist of his proposal is that the Constitution should be amended … to make it that when a member crosses the floor, he/she does not cross with his/her seat.”
Asked to explain, Mentor said this proposal called for the seat to remain with the party the member had left, and not added to the number of seats of the party to which the member crossed.
”Effectively, [MPs] will lose their seat,” she said.
Mentor said while her committee was busy talking to Parliament on holding public hearings, ”we are encouraging the public, the electorate, to continue to submit, in writing, their views on the matter”.
Responding to a question on submissions received to date, Mentor said she had received more than 100 letters, and had been ”inundated” with telephonic queries.
– Sapa