The ANC was not content with just winning overwhelming, if not two-thirds, majorities through elections. It also introduced and used floor-crossing to aid in the definitive conquest of opposition parties. In this way it constructed a reservoir of representative power. The ANC thoroughly exulted in this effect while it lasted. In the end it was rebellion within the ANC that ended the orgy of party political greed in accumulating public representatives. The resistance came from aggrieved members that revolted against opposition party defectors parachuting in and bypassing loyally serving and long-term committed cadres in the award of prized ANC positions.

Elections in conjunction with floor-crossing worked to deliver the ANC's heyday of power in the party political domain, as evidenced in the 2004-09 period. The ANC reached its peak of electoral power in 2004. This zenith was further extended through floor-crossing. At the time of the demise of floor-crossing in 2009 the ANC had amassed 74.25 per cent of members of Parliament.

Floor-crossing was kind to the ANC's pursuit of ever-larger majorities. The ANC was the only party that consistently benefitted from it. It used floor-crossing to subject, undermine and distract opposition parties, and generally to consolidate and extend its electoral gains. The ANC targeted the Democratic Alliance (DA), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the Independent Democrats (ID). Floor-crossing devastated several of the opposition parties, and undermined others, in between-election wars of attrition.

Floor-crossing moved from the status of a side-game to become part of the central power game. It preoccupied both winners and losers to such an extent that processes of representation, and of policy and governance, suffered. Between every two elections there were two floor-crossing windows. Amidst scheming to optimise floor-crossing gains and mobilising for Polokwane politics ANC cadres’ time was at a premium. The period came to epitomise power over other parties and within the ANC for the sake of power and the control it brings.

The ANC's strength in floor-crossing fed off its juggernaut movement reputation and its control over the bulk of the levers of state power (and thus control over the bulk of state-linked opportunities and positions).