Chairperson, Deputy Minister, hon members, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has tabled three Bills in Parliament, at times known as the "crosstitute" Bills, namely the Constitution Fourteenth Amendment Bill, the Constitution Fifteenth Amendment Bill and the General Laws(Loss of Membership of National Assembly, Provincial Legislature or Municipal Council) Amendment Bill. The general premise of the proposed laws ought to abolish floor-crossing at every level of government and to revert to the position that existed prior to 2002-03 when floor-crossing was prohibited.
Our Deputy Minister has virtually summed up the whole lot, but if I repeat a few things, please forgive me. The Constitution Fourteenth Amendment Bill seeks to abolish floor-crossing in the NA and provincial legislatures, whilst the Constitution Fifteenth Amendment Bill seeks to do the same in municipal councils.
The General Laws Amendment Bill seeks to effect consequential amendments to other legislation affected by the proposed abolition of floor-crossing. The legislation must be passed and implemented before 1 September 2009.
On a lighter note, I must say, maybe the timing of this Bill was a bit wrong; it should have been left open for a little bit longer and we might have seen a different story. This is before the next floor-crossing window at local government level opens.
Both the Constitution Amendment Bills fall within the ambit of section 74 of the Constitution, whilst the membership Bill falls within that of section 75 of the Constitution and must, therefore, be passed according to the procedures set in these sections.
The act of abolishing floor-crossing means that the position reverts to the one that was applicable prior to 2002. The implications thereof are, firstly, that a member of the NA or provincial legislature or municipal council will no longer be able to become a member of another political party. If a member decides to change party allegiance, that person will lose their membership of the NA, provincial legislature or council.
Secondly, an existing political party will no longer be able to merge with another political party, to subdivide it into more than one political party, or to subdivide in the subdivision to merge with another political party. Thirdly, a political party will no longer be able to change the name of the party in the National Assembly, provincial legislature or municipal council at any time it chooses.
The merits and demerits of floor-crossing have been much debated in South Africa. As we've heard, the legislation that allowed elected representatives to change political allegiance without losing their seats was enacted, in part, to cater for the political circumstances that existed during 2002-03.
Despite the fact that the legislation passed constitutional scrutiny, it has not received popular support and every floor-crossing window period has brought with it renewed criticism from the public.
Whilst many countries allow for floor-crossing, in the South African context it has caused much discontent amongst voters and has possibly contributed to voter apathy.
Floor-crossing favours larger parties, while minority parties tend to lose members, which weakens democracy. The current electoral system, which is a closed-list proportional system, combined until now with floor-crossing, disempowers the voters as they have no way of calling public representatives to account for their actions.
In fact, the process of floor-crossing deprives the voter of any guarantee that the public representatives who were on the list of the party that the voter voted for would remain on that list until the next election. A closed- list proportional representative system, combined with floor-crossing, almost guarantees that public representatives will not be accountable to the individual voter.
The proposed legislation, therefore, seeks to address the current discontent with floor-crossing. It is hoped that these changes will strengthen democracy in a system based on proportional representation and multiparty democracy. The DA supports the Bill. I thank you. [Applause.]