Three Bills have been tabled simultaneously in the National Assembly aimed at ending floor-crossing legislation.
The Bills, tabled on Wednesday by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla, state in a memorandum on the objects of the proposed new laws that “the political terrain which necessitated floor-crossing has changed”.
As a result, the memorandum says the law will revert to the position prior to 2002, when the floor-crossing legislation was first passed.
“A member of the National Assembly, provincial legislature or municipal council will no longer be able to become a member of another political party whilst retaining membership of the National Assembly, that provincial legislature or that council,” the memorandum says.
It will also mean that an existing political party will no longer be able to merge with another political party, or subdivide into more than one political party, or subdivide and any one subdivision to merge with another political party. Nor will a political party be able to change its name in the National Assembly, provincial legislature or council.
Of the three Bills, two are constitutional amendments — the Constitution Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment Bills. The first changes the rules for members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures, and the second changes the rules for municipal councils.
The third Bill is a General Laws Amendment Bill, which carries through consequential changes to the law, mainly to do with funding of parties, but it also regulates the determination of permanent and special delegates to the National Council of Provinces.
Floor-crossing legislation came about six years ago because of the need, perceived by opposition parties — and in particular the Democratic Party (now the Democratic Alliance) — to free MPs to defy their parties without losing their parliamentary seats. In effect, the plan was to loosen the grip on individual members’ consciences held by the party hierarchy.
However, in the course of its passage, the new law worked to benefit the African National Congress (ANC), because the ruling party built in a mechanism that ensured no MP belonging to the ANC could ever leave. The mechanism required that at least 10% of members must all leave together, which was an impossible mountain to climb given the overwhelming numerical dominance of the party in the chamber.
As a result, opposition parties lost members to the ANC and to each other, but no one ever left the ANC, except in municipal councils where the balance of power was much tighter.
The floor-crossing law had some interesting effects in the increasing proliferation of one- and two-member parties, as MPs with hostile feelings towards their party leaders quit and set up for themselves.
The virtual destruction of the Pan Africanist Congress, divisions in the United Democratic Movement and resentment against the leadership of Kenneth Meshoe in the African Christian Democratic Party all resulted in such fragments appearing in the house.
It also allowed the New National Party, first of all to leave the embrace of the Democratic Alliance, and then to merge with the ANC. — I-Net Bridge