Further fragmentation of the opposition is inevitable with more than 10 new political parties about to be unveiled over the next 15 days of the annual floor-crossing window.
Since its inception in 2002, floor-crossing legislation has given birth to six political parties — Independent Democrats, National Democratic Convention, United Independent Front, United Party of South Africa, Federation of Democrats and the Progressive Independent Movement.
This time the Independent Electoral Commission’s deputy chief electoral officer, Mosotho Moepya, said 10 parties — Al Jama-ah, Boerestaat Party of SA, Christian Democratic Alliance, Federal Congress, Kopanang Unemployment Union, National Alliance, Social Democratic Party, National People’s Party, People’s Democratic Movement and the African People’s Convention — have already registered.
Analysts believe the parties will only fragment the opposition further, rather than reduce the African National Congress’s (ANC) dominance in Parliament.
The Institute for Democracy in South Africa’s (Idasa) political information and monitoring service, ePolitics SA, said: ‘In total 15 new parties have been established at the national and provincial level.
‘Only one of these parties, the ID, has been returned to either of these spheres of representation by citizens through the ballot box, calling into question the legitimacy of the other 14 nascent political entities.â€
Jonathan Faull, a researcher for Idasa’s political information monitoring service, also points to a tendency of party bosses to treat small parties as their own personal fiefdoms.
Faull cites the ‘fractures and protracted court cases†surrounding the formation of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco), the United Independent Front (UIF) and, to a degree, the Independent Democrats as an example of a floor-crossing-induced perversion of party formation.
‘While these parties were formed under the pretext of escaping organisations that had become dictatorial dominions, they themselves have often become the fiefdoms of the individual personalities they are formed around,†says Faull.
Former DA leader Tony Leon said the new parties brought little to the political landscape and instead contributed to a political mitosis that entrenched one-party domination of the process.
‘I am not aware of a single new party that arose through floor-crossing which has specifically addressed either the needs of voters or, indeed, fulfilled some niche political interest otherwise not being addressed by the existing parties. In practice most of the parties created through floor crossing have made little impact on Parliament or the politics of South Africa and, generally speaking, are very lethargic in attendance in Parliament and in its committees or in advancing a specific or differential viewpoint,†said Leon.
Idasa’s political research unit found that at least 1 100 public representatives had crossed the floor during the past window periods, resulting ‘in changes of administration in two provinces and a plethora of municipalitiesâ€.
‘The pattern of floor crossing over the total period has resulted generally in the strengthening of the ruling party’s representation to the detriment of the opposition.
‘The coherency of opposition has not only been undermined by declining representation, but by the further fragmentation of the opposition in legislatures.â€
The monitoring service said ‘the 23 MPs who crossed the floor in 2003 and the 25 MPs who crossed the floor in 2005 nullified the voter intention of 918 686 and 979 792 voters respectively.â€
‘These voters represented 5,75% and 6,25% of the valid votes cast in the respective elections.â€
National
The floor-crossing window is expected to give rise to an alliance of Christian democrats — combining the Federation of Democrats and the Christian Democratic Party — in the National Assembly. The two parties are in talks about forming the newly registered Christian Democratic Alliance.
The leader of the new party, Reverend Theunis Botha, said the Christian Democratic Alliance boasts alleged heavyweights such as former Cape Town mayor Peter Marais, founder of the Federation of Democrats Louis Green, former ACDP MP Rhoda Southgate and her husband, MPL Kevin Southgate.
Nadeco, which has four seats in Parliament and is facing an onslaught from its splinter party, the Federal Congress, is also expected to join the alliance.
Nadeco’s Reverend Hawu Mbatha said: ‘We are talking to other parties who share the same vision with the hope of pulling our resources together.†Nadeco has been sinking for a while, with many of its councillors and members returning to the IFP.
Many have called Nadeco a ‘one-man fan club, with no independent identityâ€. At the height of the party’s internal squabbles last year, Nadeco members labelled Ziba Jiyane a dictator after he dissolved the party’s national executive committee and replaced it with a six-member interim federal council, which he headed. After a series of interdicts and counter-interdicts that culminated in Jiyane’s ousting and Mbatha’s ascension to the helm of the party, Jiyane is trying to make a political comeback with a new party by forming of the Federal Congress of South Africa.
The floor-crossing window could see the demise of the 48-year-old PAC, which recently expelled its former leader, Motsoko Pheko, for failing to account for R150Â 000 from the Robert Sobukwe Trust Fund.
The party’s other public representatives are said to be preparing to jump ship.
Meanwhile, it’s adapt or die for the late Malizole Diko’s United Independent Front (UIF), which has been rocked by so much infighting that it has asked the courts to decide who should fill Diko’s seat in Parliament.
Neville Hendricks, the former Western Cape ID provincial leader, considers himself the ‘acting president†of the UIF. Hendricks claims that Ike Kekana tried to hijack the party by installing himself as president and drafting another constitution for the party. The Pretoria High Court ruled against Kekana in a subsequent court case heard in early August and which he is appealing.
Provincial
The political showdown of the month will play itself out in the Western Cape, where the ANC-led alliance is expected to launch yet another assault on Mayor Helen Zille’s coalition government in Cape Town.
A significant shift of political power is expected in the province, where only four of 26 municipalities were won with a clear majority.
In KwaZulu-Natal the ANC is bracing itself for a serious onslaught from the IFP, which has been consolidating its base and has won four of five hung municipalities already.
Political grasshopper Ziba Jiyane, who ditched the IFP to form the now ailing Nadeco ahead of the 2005 floor-crossing window, has jumped off the Nadeco ship and is expected to launch another party, the Federal Congress of South Africa.
The party is a fallback plan for 20 Nadeco councillors who won a court interdict averting the party’s decision to expel them.
Jiyane is expected to join forces with his political mentor, IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi, to launch an assault on the ANC alliance in various KZN municipalities.
This week the IFP held a special national council meeting in Durban to fire Uthungulu District mayor Bhekisisa Mthethwa, whom the party suspects of wanting to cross the floor.