Marianne Merten
The New National Party aborted its disciplinary action against its outspoken senior Western Cape member Peter Marais this week after his legal team indicated it would cross-examine the party’s national and Western Cape leaders at the hearing.
Marais was axed as Western Cape welfare and poverty relief MEC on Valentine’s Day, apparently for his refusal to toe the party line. The NNP was piqued by his outspoken criticism of the NNP’s coalition with the Democratic Party in the Western Cape. He was also suspended from all party activities and relegated to the provincial backbenches.
In an effort to heal any rifts before the local government elections scheduled for November, Marais this week officially apologised – a move which led to his reinstatement as one of the deputy chairs of the provincial and federal party congresses.
The Mail & Guardian has established that the NNP’s decision to back down came after Marais’s legal team, headed by Jeremy Gauntlett, SC, demanded that the disciplinary hearing be held in public and that NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk would be questioned.
Despite Marais’s criticism of the coalition with the DP in the Cape, it is expected to remain in place for the upcoming municipal elections. Marais himself is widely regarded as a voter draw card.
He has attracted a large, loyal following among coloured communities, particularly on the Cape Flats. After his sacking at least five petitions calling for his reinstatement from areas like Mfulweni, Paarl East and Franschoek were submitted.
Instead of the disciplinary action, Van Schalkwyk called Marais and Western Cape Premier Gerald Morkel to a behind-closed- doors meeting just hours before the presentation of the budget on Wednesday.
After Van Schalkwyk’s intervention, Morkel formally accepted the apology from the man who last year challenged him for the party’s provincial leadership position. “I welcome him in our midst,” Morkel said. “Now it is our collective task to win the Western Cape for the NNP.”
The fight began on February 11 at a private meeting between five NNP provincial heavyweights – including Marais – to discuss rumours that Marais and another parliamentarian were planning to defect to the African National Congress. At the meeting, Marais was accused of pursuing a political strategy that was out of step with party guidelines and which excluded other NNP leaders.
National NNP representative Francois Beukman said the matter was now closed. “We hope the NNP in the Western Cape do well in the local government elections.”
Although Marais has regained all his party functions, he will not return to the provincial cabinet. “At this stage, definitely not,” said the provincial parliament’s party representative, Johan Gelderblom.
While MEC for Local Government Pierre Uys temporarily runs the welfare department, poverty relief has been allocated to Frieda Adams, who also runs the gender and disability desks.
The search is still on for what the premier’s office called “an African minister” to take over the welfare portfolio. It is understood Morkel has contacted several possible candidates.