TUESDAY, 8.30AM:
TWO candidates face off for the vacant seat of Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel, who resigned on Monday. Health MEC Peter Marais, an outspoken hardliner, is the leading coloured National Party leader and the likely choice to hold the vital coloured vote in the next election. Rival candidate Gerald Morkel is the Community Safety MEC.
National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk has denied that colour will dominate the race for premier, saying the “best-qualified person” will be elected by secret ballot.
MONDAY, 5.30PM:
WESTERN Cape Premier Hernus Kriel announced his resignation on Monday afternoon, saying the party needs innovative thinking and a break with the past, of which he was part.
Kriel, an apartheid old guarder and National Party hardliner for 21 years, is believed to have been under pressure from within his party to quit for some time, as he is not seen as representing the “new” National Party ahead of next year’s elections.
Outspoken Provincial Health MEC Peter Marais lost no time in announcing his candidacy as Kriel’s replacement.
Kriel’s resignation will take effect in the first week of May. Giving his reasons for quitting, Kriel said he is tired of politics and plans to tour the country by caravan with his new wife Anne-Marie.