To make an informed decision on this matter, however, the following needs to be taken into account:

• The proportional representation electoral system used in South Africa, which I personally support, affords a voice to many, at all levels of government who would otherwise never have been heard. However, it also gives great power to the political parties over their representatives.
• Should an MP, MPL or councillor, during his/her term, find that the party they represent, no longer adhere to the basic policies or principles they were elected on; or that leadership has become increasing dictatorial and prescriptive, floor crossing would give them the opportunity to, without loosing their livelihood, express their dissatisfaction.
• Should an MP, MPL or councillor disagree with the leadership of the party, on one or other matter of conscience, they invariably have to bite their tongue, as opposite views are seldom tolerated and as the threat of expulsion is ever present.
• We need to remember that under the constituency system, elected members were always permitted to leave the parties they were in, without loosing their position.

Theunis G Botha
Christian Democratic Party

Floor Crossing (01/09/2007).
A report in the Mail and Guardian August 31 to September 6 2007 quotes Toni Leon former Leader of the DA as saying that new parties brought little to the political landscape and instead contributed to a political mitosis and entrenched one-party domination of the process.

There is, however, some thing he forgets to mention and that is that the DA owes its majority in the Cape Town Metro to a coalition formed with various smaller parties. I say smaller parties because in comparison with the ANC the DA itself is just a small party unable to either address the needs of voters or fulfil some significant niche in the political arena. Before every election Tony Leon has, without fail and without success, tried to influence the voters, who in principle, vote for "smaller" parties, to vote for the DA. He tried for years to turn South Africa into a two party state comprising of Socialists and Liberals, only paying lip service to the concept of a multi party democracy.

Crossing the floor to "new" parties is symptomatic of the fact that existing parties such as the DA are not the answer as far as many voters are concerned. If they were, these floor crossers would have gone to them, and the DA would have been strong supporters of floor crossing instead of opposing it, as they do now that they don't expect to benefit from it.

Floor crossing, like most things in life, can be either negative or positive, depending on the motive behind it. If it is used for monetary advantage or egotistical reasons it is a bad thing. If however the decision is based on a principled consideration then it could be a good thing.

Theunis Botha
Party Leader

But how many of us have heard of Bahumi Moyorosi (13)? The ordeal of this unfortunate young boy of Pella in Rustenburg, was reported on page 4 of the Sowetan on Friday August 10 2007. He was viciously attacked, leaving him with his lips sliced off, his left arm chopped off and his genitals severed.

It is reported that "despite the severe mutilation of his body" Bahami crawled from the scene of his attack to a nearby hut where some boys called for help. He is now in the ICU of the local hospital fighting for his life. According to his sister, it appears that he was drugged before two men used butcher knives to cut him up.

What sort of society can spawn such evil incarnate? Evidently another boy, who's name is not even mentioned, was also gruesomely attacked, in the same area, and killed three weeks before. These sorts of mutilations are usually associated with witchdoctors or so called traditional healers and the evil of ancestral worship.

Where is the outrage and grief expressed by South Africans over incidents such as these?

A nation in which such things can happen without cries of revulsion reverberating throughout the land is either sick to the core or numbed by the incessant reports of death and destruction in our newspaper. It is time that we fall to our knees, repent and cry out to God for forgiveness so that He may heal our land.

Ministers, MEC's, Mayors, Councillors, Head of Departments and officials, of which 99% are from the ranks of the "previously disadvantaged", have been caught with their fingers in the public till.

The past 13 years has seen fraud by so-called "public servants" escalate alarmingly. Perhaps "public exploiters" will be a better name for them. This doesn't include the hundreds of millions of rand that have been wasted by so-called BEE companies. These, often incompetent, companies are given lucrative government contracts and invariably achieve below average and questionable results, for which they appear to be paid without question.

With so many of these incidents, reported daily in our Newspapers, we have begun to take them for granted and to accept them as "normal". But the recent behaviour by Zalatex, a black empowerment company, established by Latex Surgical Products, has gone too far and shocked the nation. It seems that over 6 million defective condoms, paid for by tax payers money, have been released to an unsuspecting public, putting millions at risks of contracting HIV and resulting in more unwanted pregnancies.

It was reported that a testing manager at the South African Bureau of Standards, Sphiwe Fikizolo, had allegedly accepted a bribe to certify defective condoms, which did not conform to the prescribed Quality Standards. Jerry Hurwitz, director of Zalatex, Sajeen Joseph and Sphiwe Fikizolo are all facing corruption and fraud charges.

It appears that the lust for money knows no bounds and that there is nothing that the "previously disadvantaged" and in some cases the "previously not so disadvantaged" won't do to get their hands on it.

This callous act and flagrant disregard of human life however, goes beyond the bounds of reason.