BEN MACLENNAN, ANGELA QUINTAL, Cape Town | Thursday
IN a day of high political drama, Western Cape premier Gerald Morkel was suspended from the New National Party on Wednesday after speaking out against its ”reckless and self-destructive” decision to leave the Democratic Alliance and co-operate with the African National Congress.
On Wednesday night he was consulting senior counsel with the intention of applying to the Cape High Court for an urgent interdict against the NNP move.
Morkel said he believed he remained premier despite his suspension, and that a crucial meeting of the provincial NNP which he has called for Saturday to seek backing for his stand, would go ahead with or without him.
However, the party said his suspension — pending a commission of inquiry into his ”mutiny” — meant that he could not participate in any party activity, or make public statements on behalf of it.
NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, backed by the party’s federal council, last week announced his party’s intention to withdraw from the DA and explore in favour of co-operation with the ANC.
Morkel delivered his condemnation of the NNP decision at a media briefing in Cape Town at which he was surrounded by DA Cape Town unicity councillors, five of the six NNP MECs in the province and other DP MECs.
It is thought that if Morkel’s plan to back the DA succeeds, it could weaken Van Schalkwyk’s position in talk with the ANC – and conceivably scupper the ANC’s plan for control of the Western Cape.
The sixth, social services MEC David Malatsi, who is overseas, later phoned his support, according to Morkel’s office.
Morkel said he had been ”inundated with messages of alarm” from NNP public representatives, business leaders, and ordinary citizens in the province.
”And there is a single, clear message from all quarters — collaboration with the ANC is not in the interests of Cape Town, the Western Cape, or South Africa.”
Morkel — who has made several public about-turns on his stance — said he had told Friday’s federal council meeting he was opposed to the move to leave the DA.
He said even councillors from towns and villages in the Western Cape had made this crystal clear at a meeting with Van Schalkwyk in Goudini earlier in the day.
”What we are being asked to do is foolish and unprincipled.”
Morkel said Leon had addressed a DA Cape Town unicity caucus meeting where he had almost unanimous objection to any alliance with the ANC, a party ”we have spent our lifetime opposing”.
Among those demonstrating support for the DA, was NNP-aligned councillor and unicity Speaker Danny de la Cruz, previously regarded as an ally of axed DA mayor Peter Marais.
In its reaction, the DA said caucuses across the country, and councillors from all three components of the party — the NNP, DP and Federal Alliance — had begun to come out in support of the DA, its leadership and its programme of action.
Over half of DA caucuses in local councils countrywide had come out in support of Leon, and the number was growing.
Earlier, ANC national chairman Mosiuoa Lekota told reporters his party would still co-operate with the NNP if Morkel and his provincial colleagues opted to remain in the DA.
He was speaking after a working group from the two parties met for the first time over breakfast on Wednesday to kick off negotiations on co-operation at all levels of government.
Lekota hinted that proposed changes to the Municipal Structures Act to allow councillors to cross the floor would go Parliament before the end of the week.
The lifting of the anti-defection clause would allow the NNP to take DA councillors with it when it formally quits the DA.
Van Schalkwyk said the parties would be meeting again over the next day or two.
Former president and National Party leader FW de Klerk said the ”pathetic failure” of the DA had shattered hopes of a credible non-racial alternative to the ANC.
”For the second time in the past five years, a golden opportunity to place our country’s politics on a healthy footing has been wasted.” What remained of the DA after the NNP’s withdrawal was ”doomed to the lot of a shrinking minority party with a racial tag around its neck and without influence”, and he had no desire to be part it.
President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday praised Van Schalkwyk for his contribution to helping create a ”common destiny” for South Africans.
Speaking in a parliamentary debate, he said there had been no speech since 1994 equal to Van Schalkwyk’s in the debate.
The NNP leader had been ”candid, honest and committed to a common destiny” for all South Africans, Mbeki said.
Van Schalkwyk said earlier in the debate that South Africans needed a new pact between people who still had unfinished business between them.
Van Schalkwyk was frequently applauded by ANC MPs, and received a standing ovation at the end.
The country’s liberation meant every South African faced a choice, he said.
”Either your heart is in the New South Africa, or it is not. There is no in-between. You cannot be here in body and not in soul.” – Sapa