The majority of the City of Cape Town council's 32 New National Party (NNP) councillors have signed papers saying they have left their party and intend joining the ANC during the two-week floor crossing period which starts at midnight tonight.
This means the ANC will make up the majority of the council.
The prescribed Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) papers have to be handed to the IEC chief electoral officer, Pansy Tlakula, before September 15 when the walkover period ends.
The NNP started celebrating early with a karaoke event on Monday afternoon where they sang "songs of new beginnings".
NNP caucus leader in the council and deputy mayor Gawa Samuels belted out Tom Jones's It's not unusual.
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Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Independent Democrats (ID) said they are still hoping to get their share of defectors. In addition, the ANC said a few DA councillors had expressed interest in joining the party.
According to the floor-crossing rules, 10 percent or more party members must leave a political party to constitute a walkover. If less than 10 percent of members want to leave a party to join another party, they will be prohibited from doing so.
IEC provincial head, Courtney Sampson, said: "The members must prove that the party to which they are crossing has accepted them. If they join another party, they keep their seats. But if they are not accepted by the other party, they lose their seats. They can only move once. They cannot go back (to the original party)."
Samuels said the majority of NNP councillors will join the ANC tomorrow. They will retain their posts within the council until the next local government elections.
The ANC's existing 81 councillors need at least 20 NNP members to join them in order to have the majority in the council.
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