/ 21 November 2001

Marais resigns, slings mud at Leon

Cape Town | Wednesday

CAPE Town’s mayor Peter Marais resigned on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the Cape High Court restored both his party membership and his mayoral chain.

”The choice I have to make is between a DA (Democratic Alliance) mayoral chair or an uncertain future. However to remain as mayor I would be required to turn my back on the poor, drop my moral principles and swear allegiance to the DA,” he said.

Marais told reporters that his resignation would take effect at midnight on Wednesday.

”Marthinus van Schalkwyk and the NNP (New National Party) have been my refuge and pillars of strength throughout this crisis. I have therefore decided to resign as mayor and member of the DA immediately and remain loyal to the NNP and its leader.”

He said the court judgment had exposed DA leader Tony Leon as an insecure, incompetent leader, who hid behind spin-doctors, scriptwriters and a ”liberal dosage of arrogance”.

The court found that the party’s national management committee (NMC) had acted unfairly when it booted him out of the party last month.

Marais was expelled from the DA and automatically lost the mayoral chain after Leon complained that he had harmed the DA’s public image and failed to lead the party properly at city level.

The DA was ordered to pay costs.

IN court, Judge Deon van Zyl said the NMC had not acted fairly or in good faith when it took action against Marais.

”It is certainly not consonant with the demands of natural justice,” he said. – Sapa