Court Ruling - Defection Legislation

4 October 2002; 11:30

The African Christian Democratic Party welcomes the ruling made by the
Constitutional Court earlier today. The ACDP believes the ruling is fair
and the Party is pleased that the Court ruled that the Legislation is only
partially constitutional.

As one of the applicants in the court case the ACDP welcomes the ruling that
Members of Parliament or Provincial Legislatures will not be allowed to
cross the floor. If this was possible, a mockery would have been made of
democracy in South Africa.

By allowing Local Councillors to cross the floor, the instability that was
caused by the DP/NNP/DA saga will be normalised. Again the ACDP's position
on alliances has proved that voters are left in the dark when "bed fellows"
get unhappy with each other. Therefore the ACDP is not in favour of
alliances.

An interesting time is awaiting many local councils. The ACDP will play a
vital part in what will happen in the Unicity of Cape Town where the Party
has 8 councillors.

At a meeting of the Federal Council of Provinces earlier this year, the
Party passed a resolution that councillors will be allowed to cross to the
ACDP on strict conditions and on passing a guardian committee.
The National Executive Committee of the ACDP will meet on Monday to discuss
future actions to be taken by the Party.

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For more information call the ACDP Deputy President, Mr. Louis Green (MP) on
083 441 9295
or Media Liaison Office, Clr. Pieter de Necker on 082 788 9129