Cape Town city councillor Badhi Chaaban says he is a member of both the African Muslim Party (AMP) and the newly formed National People’s Party (NPP), as both allow dual membership.
But he has asked the AMP leadership for permission to formally cross to the NPP, taking his council seat with him.
He was speaking on Monday after appearing at an NPP media briefing in a city hotel dressed in a blue NPP shirt, with its rainbow logo.
”I am a member of the NPP. In fact, I was one of the founder members of the NPP,” he told the South African Press Association afterwards.
”One can wear many hats in politics. You only have to look at what Helen Zille is doing — she’s mayor, and leader of the Democratic Alliance — and what Patricia de Lille is doing. But we are open about it; we say there’s no hidden agenda.”
Chaaban, who is the AMP’s sole representative on the city council, said he had asked the AMP leadership for permission to cross over to the NPP.
”Indications are that I’m probably going to get a positive response to my request,” he said.
Asked why he needed permission, he said: ”Because we work in the party [the AMP] as brothers.”
He said because he came to council as a proportional-representation councillor, the seat belonged to the AMP, not to him.
It would be rude, un-Islamic and an act of betrayal to cross simply because the Constitution permitted it.
”I’m a man of principles … I’m a man whose word is his bond,” he said.
”I would like to cross over simply because I want to add value to the newly born NPP.”
At Monday’s briefing, the NPP announced the names of a new batch of floor-crossers from Western Cape municipalities.
Among them were three more councillors who have defected from the Independent Democrats in the Breede Valley local council, leaving the ID with only one representative there.
Aubrey Titus and Salmon Syster were at the briefing, while party chief executive Faried Stemmet said the third, Glenda Daames, was ill and could not make it.
They join Tom Pedro, whose defection was announced earlier.
Their crossings make no difference to control of the council, held by the African National Congress with the help of independents.
Also at the briefing was a defecting Witzenberg councillor, Maria Geldenhuys, who claimed that an ID organiser tricked her into signing a blank floor-crossing form on Sunday.
Death penalty
Meanwhile, the NPP wants to bring back the death penalty, and seeks tougher action on drugs.
These were two of the points in its draft statement of principles, released on Monday.
Party leader David Sasman said the document would have to be discussed at a party congress before a final set could be drawn up.
The draft said the NPP wanted mandatory death sentences for crimes against the state, murder, rape, drug-trafficking and molestation.
It said it would introduce an ”effective management system” for safer neighbourhoods, and would participate in ”the destruction of shebeens, drug outlets and gangsterism”.
The NPP also promised accelerated housing delivery, including rental stock, a grant system for all unemployed people and a nationwide medical insurance system. — Sapa