Cape Town - The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) has proposed the Western Cape People’s Bill in the legislature in a bid to “claim the right of self-determination” for the province.
FF+ MPL Peter Marais said the bill sought to, among others, “fundamentally change the constitutional balance of power between the Western Cape and the rest of South Africa”.
He said the proposed legislation was an effort to ensure the Western Cape was no longer “forced to pursue policies which its people oppose”, just because those policies were supported by the majority of South Africans.
Marais sent the bill to the speaker and the premier and the proposed legislation follows another bill proposed by fellow MPL Christopher Fry (DA) to devolve national powers to the Western Cape.
Marais said he thought the FF+ bill would probably end up being a bipartisan bill supported by both the FF+ and the DA. However, he cautioned that if the DA rejected the bill, “then their moonshot could miss its target”.
He was referring to DA leader John Steenhuisen’s “pre-election Moonshot Pact” with like-minded parties for a coalition government for next year’s general election.
Steenhuisen said the DA would initiate a process to form a pre-election Moonshot Pact to defeat the ANC, to keep the EFF out of the government, and to inaugurate a new national opposition coalition government.
Political analyst Shingai Mutizwa-Mangiza said the proposed legislation was a blatant call for secession of the Western Cape that would not garner mass support, so it was, therefore not a viable solution.
He said it would create complex legal issues and was, therefore, “obviously an electoral gimmick” before the 2024 poll.
“Who will recognise a breakaway Republic? Certainly not the AU.
“How will they decide on which national assets in the province belong to South Africa and which to this new republic they are touting?”
The FF+ bill still has to go through the normal process in the legislature which means that tabling of the proposed piece of legislation will constitute the first reading.
Next the Speaker will have to refer the bill to the relevant sanding committee for discussions and it will be advertised for public participation and comment. The standing committee can present the bill to the House with its amendments.
When it is read for the third time it will be debated and voted on.
The Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG), a political pressure group which wants the creation of “an independent non-racial first-world sovereign state on Africa’s Southern tip,” cheered the FF+ proposed bill
CIAG spokesperson Phil Craig said the proposed legislation together with the DA’s proposed bill would bring the Western Cape to the brink of full federal autonomy.
Craig said: “The likely outcome is that South Africa will move from being a quasi-federal unitary state to a fully federal one.”