By Angela Quintal
The party of apartheid is officially dead at national level. More than 91 years after the National Party was formed in Bloemfontein in 1914, and after it ruled the country from 1948 to April 1994, the NP's successor - the New National Party - lost its last MP in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
André Gaum crossed the floor to the ANC, joining his former party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, as well as colleagues Carol Johnson, Carl Greyling, Francois Beukman and Johnny Schippers.
Gaum's defection was announced in the National Assembly, but the significance of the moment appeared lost on MPs.
Only one of the NNP's seven former MPs in the National Assembly opted to cross to an opposition party. Stan Simmons has become the sole MP of the newly formed United Party of South Africa.
The NNP's federal congress decided in April this year that the party should officially disband at midnight on the day of the certification of the local government election results. This was to accommodate more than 60 NNP councillors to ensure they would not lose their jobs and could fight the election on a different ticket.
However, at national and provincial level, NNP MPs and MPLs would be expected to use the floor-crossing period which began on September 1 to defect to another party.
Gaum himself did not mention that he would go down in the history books as the last Nat to cross the floor.
He told reporters his choice to join the ruling party had been determined by my conscience and my political convictions and not by any form of opportunism.
He believed he could best promote the interests of the people who voted for the NNP and of moderate South Africans by joining the ANC.
Gaum said he had been assured by the ANC that he would be able to address and promote within the ANC issues that were dear to minority communities.
Two NNP MPs in the Northern Cape also defected to the ANC last week, as well as four of the five NNP MPLs in the Western Cape.
All eyes are on NNP MPL Johan Gelderblom, who remains the last NNP public representative at provincial level and who has yet to indicate his new political home.
The NNP's sole National Council of Provinces' representative, Freddy Adams, will return under a deal with the ruling party as one of the ANC's delegates in parliament's second chamber once the house is reconfigured in terms of the various defections in various provinces.
The NNP's fortunes have suffered in every election since its forerunner the NP became the official opposition in a democratic South Africa and was a brief member of the government of national unity until 1996 under its then leader FW de Klerk. It had 82 seats in the new 400-member National Assembly.
In 1999 the once-mighty party decreased its seats in the National Assembly to 28, and became even less significant after last year's election with a mere seven seats, the same as the African Christian Democratic Party and the Independent Democrats.