2005 South African floor-crossing window period

May 2013 January 2022 The 2005 floor crossing window period in South Africa was a period of 15 days, from 1 to 15 September 2005, in which members of the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures were able to cross the floor from one political party to another without giving up their seats. The period was authorised by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa,Constitution Tenth Amendment Act of 2003 which scheduled regular window periods in the second and fourth September after each election. The previous general election had been held on 14 April 2004. In the National Assembly, the floor-crossing expanded the African National Congress' (ANC) representation from 279 to 293 seats, giving it control of almost three-quarters of the 400-member house. Other existing parties mainly lost seats, with several entirely new parties being created; still-existing parties created in 2005 include the National Democratic Convention Seven of the nine provincial legislatures were also affected, with only the Free State and North West legislatures remaining unchanged. In both the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature and the Western Cape Provincial Parliament the ANC received enough members to move from a plurality to an absolute majority; in KwaZulu-Natal it gained two members to control 40 of the 80 seats, while in the Western Cape it gained five, to give it 24 of the 42 seats. This window period also saw the final demise of the New National Party, in which all its members crossed the floor, mostly to become ANC representatives. The tables below show all the changes; in those provinces not listed there was no change in the provincial legislature. Tables National Assembly |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats afterhttp://www.pmg.org.za/parlinfo/seats Political Parties in National Assembly Parliamentary Monitoring Group 26 December 2010 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080821163716/http://www.pmg.org.za/parlinfo/seats 21 August 2008 |- |African National Congress |279 | +14 |293 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |50 | −3 |47 |- |Inkatha Freedom Party |28 | −5 |23 |- |United Democratic Movement |9 | −3 |6 |- |Independent Democrats |7 | −2 |5 |- |African Christian Democratic Party |7 | −3 |4 |- |Freedom Front Plus |4 | 0 |4 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|National Democratic ConventionParty created during this floor-crossing period. | | +4 |4 |- |Pan Africanist Congress of Azania |3 | 0 |3 |- |United Christian Democratic Party |3 | 0 |3 |- |Minority Front |2 | 0 |2 |- |United Independent Front | | +2 |2 |- |Azanian People's Organisation |1 | 0 |1 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|Federation of Democrats | | +1 |1 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|Progressive Independent Movement | | +1 |1 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|United Party | | +1 |1 |- |New National Party (South Africa)The New National Party officially dissolved itself during this floor-crossing period, with most of its representatives becoming African National Congress representatives. |7 | −7 | |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|400 |} Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats afterSouth Africa Survey 2007/08 John Kane-Berman South African Institute of Race Relations 2008 649 etal |- |African National Congress |51 | 0 |51 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |5 | 0 |5 |- |United Democratic Movement |6 | −2 |4 |- |United Independent Front | | +2 |2 |- |Pan Africanist Congress of Azania |1 | 0 |1 |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|63 |} Gauteng Provincial Legislature |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats after |- |African National Congress |51 | 0 |51 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |15 | −3 |12 |- |Inkatha Freedom Party |2 | 0 |2 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|Federal Alliance |0 | +2 |2 |- |African Christian Democratic Party |1 | 0 |1 |- |Freedom Front Plus |1 | 0 |1 |- |Independent Democrats |1 | 0 |1 |- |Pan Africanist Congress of Azania |1 | 0 |1 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|Alliance of Free Democrats | | +1 |1 |- |United Independent Front | | +1 |1 |- |United Democratic Movement |1 | −1 |0 |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|73 |} KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats after |- |African National Congress |38 | +2 |40 |- |Inkatha Freedom Party |30 | −3 |27 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |7 | −2 |5 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|National Democratic Convention | | +4 |4 |- |Minority Front |2 | 0 |2 |- |African Christian Democratic Party |2 | −1 |1 |- |United Democratic Movement |1 | 0 |1 |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|80 |} Limpopo Provincial Legislature |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats after |- |African National Congress |45 | 0 |45 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |2 | 0 |2 |- |African Christian Democratic Party |1 | 0 |1 |- |United Independent Front | | +1 |1 |- |United Democratic Movement |1 | −1 |0 |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|49 |} Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats after |- |African National Congress |27 | 0 |27 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |2 | 0 |2 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|Christian Party | | +1 |1 |- |Freedom Front Plus |1 | −1 |0 |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|30 |} Northern Cape Provincial Parliament |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats after |- |African National Congress |21 | +3 |24 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |3 | 0 |3 |- |Independent Democrats |2 | −1 |1 |- |African Christian Democratic Party |1 | 0 |1 |- |Freedom Front Plus |1 | 0 |1 |- |New National Party (South Africa) |2 | −2 | |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|30 |} Western Cape Provincial Parliament |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !Seats before !Net change !Seats after |- |African National Congress |19 | +5 |24 |- |Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |12 | +1 |13 |- |African Christian Democratic Party |2 | 0 |2 |- |United Independent Front | | +2 |2 |- |Independent Democrats |3 | −2 |1 |- |United Democratic Movement |1 | −1 |0 |- |New National Party (South Africa) |5 | −5 | |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Total !colspan="3" style="text-align:center"|42 |} National Council of Provinces The National Council of Provinces was reconstituted as a result of the changes in the provincial legislatures. Its reconstituted makeup was as follows:South Africa Survey 2007/08 John Kane-Berman South African Institute of Race Relations 2008 647 etal |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left"|Party !style="text-align:left"|Delegate type !EC !FS !G !KZN !L !M !NW !NC !WC !colspan=2|Total |- | style="width: 4px" bgcolor=African National Congress rowspan=2| | style="text-align: left;" scope="row" rowspan=2 | African National Congress |style="text-align:left"|Permanent |4 |4 |4 |3 |5 |5 |4 |4 |3 |36 |rowspan=2|68 |- |style="text-align:left"|Special |4 |4 |3 |2 |4 |4 |4 |4 |3 |32 |- | style="width: 4px" bgcolor=Democratic Alliance (South Africa) rowspan=2| | style="text-align: left;" scope="row" rowspan=2 | Democratic Alliance (South Africa) |style="text-align:left"|Permanent |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |2 |10 |rowspan=2|12 |- |style="text-align:left"|Special | | |1 | | | | | |1 |2 |- | style="width: 4px" bgcolor=Inkatha Freedom Party rowspan=2| | style="text-align: left;" scope="row" rowspan=2 | Inkatha Freedom Party |style="text-align:left"|Permanent | | |1 |2 | | | | | |3 |rowspan=2|4 |- |style="text-align:left"|Special | | | |1 | | | | | |1 |- |Independent Democrats |style="text-align:left"|Permanent | | | | | | | |1 | |colspan=2|1 |- |Freedom Front Plus |style="text-align:left"|Permanent | |1 | | | | | | | |colspan=2|1 |- |United Christian Democratic Party |style="text-align:left"|Permanent | | | | | | |1 | | |colspan=2|1 |- |United Democratic Movement |style="text-align:left"|Permanent |1 | | | | | | | | |colspan=2|1 |- |United Independent Front |style="text-align:left"|Permanent | | | | | | | | |1 |colspan=2|1 |- |bgcolor="#eeeeee"| |style="text-align:left"|National Democratic Convention |style="text-align:left"|Special | | | |1 | | | | | |colspan=2|1 |-style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="3" style="text-align:left"|Total !10 !10 !10 !10 !10 !10 !10 !10 !10 !colspan=2|90 |} Notes to the tables note See also Floor crossing (South Africa) 2003 South African floor-crossing window period 2007 South African floor-crossing window period References Category:2005 in South Africa Category:History of political parties in South Africa Category:September 2005 in South Africa Category:Party switching Category:2005 in politics