Marianne Merten and Jaspreet Kindra
Western Cape Premier Gerald Morkel may soon face a joint New National Party-African National Congress vote of no confidence in the Western Cape legislature, following his setback in the Cape High Court this week.
It is known that the possibility of a no-confidence vote was discussed at a strategy meeting of the ANC and NNP in Johannesburg on Thursday, at which floor-crossing legislation and a cooperation agreement between the parties was also aired.
NNP sources were confident Morkel was in a corner, with the choice of resigning or being voted out of office. One said: “If he can’t see that it’s the end of the road, I can’t understand it.”
However, further legal action is still a possibility. Morkel is pursuing a court challenge to the NNP’s decision to leave the Democratic Alliance.
On Wednesday the high court rejected his attempt to head off a planned NNP federal council meeting in Pretoria, finding that it was not the court’s job to interfere in internal party debates, although there was “considerable ground to be sceptical” of the NNP conduct.
The council then amended the party’s constitution to reverse the provision for dual membership of the NNP and DA adopted after June 2000, and gave NNP leaders sole discretion to suspend the party’s public representatives in national and provincial government. The party formally withdrew from the DA.
Indications are that Morkel’s decision to flout Marthinus van Schalkwyk by pledging allegiance to the DA is to be tackled through provincial NNP structures.
National NNP leaders are wary of acting against him, conscious of the widespread disgruntlement in the party over DA chief Tony Leon’s expulsion of Cape Town mayor Peter Marais. Dissatisfaction over Leon’s actions has been raised repeatedly, even at the rebel NNP meeting at Goudini Spa near Worcester last Saturday.
It is understood that few NNP members supported Morkel’s anti-ANC stance at the party’s recent Western Cape head council meeting. On Thursday MEC for Social Services David Malatsi came out in support of the NNP federal council, but did not indicate whether he intended to resign. It is possible that other provincial NNP cabinet ministers will return to the party fold once details of the provincial co-operation agreement with the ANC are finalised.
Senior NNP members feel the federal council’s decision to remove a constitutional provision allowing members to remain in the DA could decide Morkel’s fate without the party having to act against him.
Mpumalanga leader and federal council member Chris MacPherson said: “The ball is now in Morkel’s court he will have to choose between being a member of the NNP and the DA.”
Morkel, who did not attend the federal council meeting, sent a letter restating his opposition to the withdrawal of the NNP from the DA and any alliance with the ANC.
On Monday MEC for Transport Piet Meyer resigned with immediate effect from the provincial cabinet, saying he backed the NNP federal council. “When a minister loses confidence in the direction in which the cabinet is forced to go, he or she must do the honourable thing and resign,” Meyer said.
Reportedly following consultations with his family and priest, Meyer’s resignation came days after Western Cape MECs first backed Morkel’s defiant stance, then pledged their loyalty to Van Schalkwyk, only to fall in behind Morkel once more.
However, other NNP MECs torn between party loyalty and their jobs are unlikely to follow suit. Local government MEC Pierre Uys told the Mail & Guardian he remained “a loyal member of the NNP” and supported the federal council, but would not resign. “If there are changes [in the provincial government], I will accept these,” he added.
Another MEC also indicated he remained loyal to the NNP federal council, but would not resign at this stage because he “still has a job to do”.
If the no-confidence motion is carried by the required simple majority, Morkel is out of a job and the provincial cabinet dissolved. Of the 42 members of the legislature, 18 are ANC, 17 NNP and five DP.
This would pave the way for an ANC-NNP cooperative agreement with 12 MEC posts split 50:50 and a possible trade-off between the parties over the posts of provincial premier and Cape Town mayor. Much will depend on Western Cape speaker Willem Doman, who must approve it.
As the next sitting of the provincial Parliament is only scheduled for November 20 three days after the NNP provincial congress Morkel plans to call the speaker will also have to decide whether to recall parliamentarians for a special sitting to deal with the no-confidence vote.
A mixture of joy and relief was writ large on the federal council members’ faces at the NNP headquarters in Pretoria over their “victory”. MacPherson and Gauteng leader Johan Killian said the finding of the court had to be seen as a victory over the DP.