Floor-crossing gets the boot

2008-02-21 08:19

Johannesburg - Floor-crossing will finally be scrapped, The Star reported on Thursday.

Following on a decision by the ANC's Polokwane conference, parliament's committee on private members' legislative proposals on Wednesday agreed to a draft bill that will lead to the scrapping of the practice.

It came after the Inkatha Freedom Party's Koos van der Merwe first proposed the idea in 2006 and finally got the unanimous support of his fellow committee members on Wednesday.

Added to Van der Merwe's success was the fact that private members' bills are usually unsuccessful.

"I am going to bed with a wonderful conscience. I feel like a cricketer who has scored a century," said Van der Merwe.

The decision means that once the legislation is repealed, political office-bearers will no longer be able to cross the floor to another party and take their seat with them.

Van der Merwe said democracy would now be restored and "seat stealing" would come to an end.

The committee's chairperson, Vytjie Mentor, said they would be sending their recommendations to the Speaker's office, from where the bill would be referred to the portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development for repeal.

Jonathan Faull from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, which had opposed the practice since its inception, said the decision would restore the integrity of the country's electoral system.

Political commentator Steven Friedman said that even within the ruling party there had been unhappiness with the bill, because some comrades who had worked their way through the ranks found they were bumped off lists in favour of those who had crossed the floor.

- SAPA