A week into the floor-crossing period, the African National Congress’s (ANC) power goes unchallenged. In the defection period that is killing off smaller opposition parties such as the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and the United Independent Front (UIF), a low-intensity war is raging in Cape Town, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) bleeding heaviest and the ruling party crowing victory.
On Wednesday, two of the DA’s senior city politicians, Kent Morkel and Kobus Brynard, crossed the floor to the ANC. Cape Town mayor Helen Zille was, apparently, taken completely by surprise.
Morkel, who comes from the old National Party, has a large rural following and could take more DA councillors with him. He was about to face a disciplinary hearing for offering a senior job to an ID councillor. Rumours are that is why he jumped ship.
The DA gained three councillors in the city. Independent Democrats (ID) councillor Michael Britz has also defected to the DA. In terms of the 10% threshold, he needs two more ID councillors to cross with him for his defection to be valid.
Cape Town, which is in the hands of the DA and its coalition partners, of which Patricia de Lille’s ID is the biggest, is still stable and not threatened by an ANC takeover. DA provincial leader Theuns Botha was confident that the DA would not be facing further defections.
Earlier in the week the ANC announced that it was again in control in the Drakenstein municipality (Paarl, Wellington and surrounding areas). Stellenbosch and George are also expected to fall to the ANC in the final week of the floor-crossing period.
The ANC’s provincial spokesperson, Garth Strachen, was confident: ”We’re absolutely and definitely expecting more DA councillors to cross the floor to the ANC. We’re expecting to make more gains in the provincial legislature and in councils around the Western Cape.”
The ID’s Cape Town leader, Simon Grindrod, said his party, despite all predictions, was still standing strong ”and has not imploded”.
On Wednesday Badih Chaaban’s New People Party (NPP) laid defamation charges against Patricia de Lille and Simon Grindrod.
The DA now has three more seats in the Cape Town metro than before the floor crossing. The ID suffered the biggest loss.
The events dealt a serious blow to the PAC. Themba Godi, former deputy president of the party, launched the African People’s Convention (ACP), taking with him two of the PAC’s seats in the national assembly. Mofihli Likotsi, the party’s general secretary, crossed to the ACP on Thursday, leaving only embattled former PAC president Motsoko Pheko holding his seat in the National Assembly.
The ACP also took with it Eastern Cape MPL Zingisa Mkabile, and in Gauteng the PAC lost deputy chairperson Douglas Mathume, secretary general Lidya Masemola and deputy secretary general Joseph Mathebula to the Godi camp.
Godi said that the ”leadership crisis has been an endemic feature, accompanied by chronic in-fighting and a total lack of vision”, resulting in the sidelining of the PAC in mainstream politics.
Eastern Cape UIF chairperson Gogo Mabandla says the UIF ”is now dead” as a result of floor-crossing.
A number of party members in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, have crossed the floor to join the New Vision Party (NVP), recently established by the UIF’s former acting president Ike Kekana. The UIF’s sole councillor in Cape Town, Elizabeth Thompson, has also joined the DA.
The UIF national spokesperson, Vela Ntuli, confirmed that, apart from Mabandla, Nelson Mandela metro councillor Phumla Nondwe had defected to the NVP — taking 10 UIF branches in her area with her.
In Limpopo, provincial secretary Larries Scott, his deputy secretary, Nese Thulang, as well as France Ratau — who was a member of the executive — have left the UIF for the NVP. According to Scott: ”There’s nothing left of the party at this time.”
Ntuli condemned floor crossing: ”Few people will dispute the fact that the defection law is characterised by impunity and expediency. Opportunism lies at the core of it.”
In an open letter to the Independent Electoral Commission and Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said that defections should be suspended where there were outstanding financial questions concerning the politicians involved.
Additional reporting by Lynley Donnelly, Zodidi Mhlana and Surika van Schalkwyk