LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FROM
TERTIUS DELPORT (DA) ON FLOOR CROSSING
29 March 2006
AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION BILL
To
amend the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, so as to disallow
a Member of the National Assembly or a provincial legislature or a Municipal
Council to become a member of another party whilst retaining membership of the
National Assembly or of that provincial legislature or that Municipal Council;
and to disallow party represented in the National Assembly or a provincial
legislature or a Municipal Council to subdivide into more than one party or to
subdivide and any one of the subdivisions to merge with another party, whilst
allowing a member affected by such subdivision or subdivision and merger to
retain membership of the National Assembly or of that provincial legislature or
that Municipal Council and to provide for matter connected therewith.
Amendment
to the Constitution Act No 21 of 2002 and the ? Amendment to the Constitution
Act No 2 of 2003;
AND
WHEREAS the said amendments allowed members of the National Assembly,
provincial legislatures or municipal councils (the relevant institutions) to
become members of another party whilst retaining their membership of the
relevant institution;
AND
WHEREAS these amendments further allowed a party represented in the National
Assembly, a provincial legislature or a municipal council to merge or subdivide
or subdivide and merge with another party whilst members affected by such
changes retained their membership of the relevant institution;
AND
WHEREAS it is desirable that a member of the National Assembly, provincial
legislatures and municipal councils should be disallowed to retain membership
of the relevant institution in the event of such a member becoming a member of
another party by joining such other party or by being part of or forming a
subdivision from his or her party,
ALTERNATIVE
AND
WHEREAS it is desirable to retain right of parties to merge without such merger
causing any affected member to lose his or her membership of the relevant
institution;
BUT
WHEREAS it is desirable to disallow the retention of membership of the relevant
institution by a member who joins another party or who subdivides to form
another party,
BE
IT THEREFORE ENACTED by the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, as
follows:
Amendment
of section 46 of Act 108 of 1996
The [Subject to Schedule 6A,] the National Assembly
consists of no fewer than 350 and no more than 400 women and men elected as
members in terms of an electoral system that
Amendment
of section 46 of Act 108 of 1996
(3) A person loses membership of the National
Assembly if that person:-
(a) ceases
to be eligible; [or]
(b) is
absent from the National Assembly without permission in circumstances for which
the rules and orders of the Assembly prescribe loss of membership or
(c) ceases
to be a member of the party that nominated that person as a member of the
Assembly [unless that members has become a member of another party in
accordance with Schedule 6A,] unless that party has merged with another party.
Amendment
of section 105 of Act 108 of 1996
A [Subject to Schedule 6A,] a provincial legislature
consists of women and men elected as members in terms of an electoral system
that
Amendment
of section 106 of Act 108 of 1996
(3) A person loses membership of a provincial
legislature if that person:-
(a) ceases
to be eligible; or
(b) is absent from the legislature without
permission in circumstances
for which the rules and orders of the legislature
prescribe loss of membership; or
(c) ceases
to be a member of the party that nominated that person as
a member of the legislature [unless that
member has become a
member of another party in accordance
with Schedule 6A.] Unless
that party has merged with another
party.
Amendment
of Schedule 6A to Act 108 of 1996, as inserted by section 2 of Act 18 of 2002
Deletion
of Schedule 6A in Act 108 of 1996
[(a)] (i) determine,
in accordance with national legislation, how many of
each partys delegates are to be permanent delegates and how
many ore to be special delegates; and
[(b)] (ii)
appoint the permanent delegates in accordance with the
nominations of the parties.
Amendment
of section 62 of Act 108 of 1996
(3) Permanent delegates are appointed
for a term that expires-
(a) immediately
before the first sitting of a provincial legislature after its
next election, [or
(b) on
the day before the appointment of permanent delegates in
accordance with section 61(2) (b) (ii)
takes effect.]
Amendment
of Schedule 3 to Act 108 of 1996, as amended by section 2 of Act 3 of 1999 and
section 19 of Act 34 of 2001
3. If the
competing surpluses envisaged in item 2 are equal, the undistributed delegates
in the delegation must be allocated to the party or parties, including any
merged party as contemplated in section 61(2)(b), with the same surplus in
sequence of votes recorded, starting with the party or merged party which
recorded the highest number of votes, including combined votes in the case of a
merged party, during the last election for the provincial legislature
concerned, but if any of the parties with the same surplus-
(a) came
into existence on account of charges of party membership or subdivision of
parties within that legislature as contemplated in section 61(2)(b); and
(b) did
not participate in the last election for the provincial legislature
concerned,
The legislature must allocate the undistributed
delegates in the delegation to the party or parties with the same surplus in a
manner which is consistent with democracy.
Amendment of section 157 of Act 108 of 1996, as
amended by section 2 of Act 87 of 1998
(a) by the
substitution for subsection (1) of the following subsection:
(1)
[Subject to Schedule 6A,] a Municipal Council consists of-
(a)
members elected
in accordance with subsections [(2), (3), (4) and (5)] (2) and (3); or
(b)
if provided for
by national legislation-
(i)
members appointed
by other Municipal Councils to represent those other Councils; or
(ii)
both members
elected in accordance with paragraph (a) and members appointed in accordance
with subparagraph (i) of this paragraph.; and
(b) by the
substitution for subsection (3) of the following subsection:
(3) An electoral system in terms of subsection (2)
must [ensure that the total number of members elected from each party reflects
the total proportion of the votes recorded for those parties] result, in
general, in proportional representation.
Insertion
of Schedule 6A in Act 108 of 1996