OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 12.20pm.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY leader and new head of the official opposition Tony Leon took over New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s seat in the National Assembly on Monday at the start of the swearing-in of the 400 MPs returned in the June 2 poll.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa returned to the Assembly — like Leon in a front-row bench — for the first time since his expulsion from the African National Congress in 1996.
Van Schalkwyk took his seat alongside the NNP’s leader in the Assembly, Sheila Camerer, down the line from a row of Inkatha Freedom Party front benchers, including IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The DP, IFP, NNP and UDM were the only opposition parties to get front benches; African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe was relegated to a second-row seat while Federal Alliance boss Louis Luyt was placed well back in the crowd.
Mbeki, Zuma, Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala, Water Affairs Minister Kader Asmal, and ANC Womens League head Winnie Madikizela-Mandela were in the first batch of ten MPs called up by Chaskalson to take the oath or affirmation.