Under the banner ”Making South Africa work for you”, a New National Party federal congress this weekend is set to tout the cooperation pact with the ruling African National Congress as a way of giving minorities a voice in South Africa.
Boosted by this week’s appointment of two of its senior members as deputy ministers — Renier Schoeman in the health portfolio and former Western Cape MEC for Environmental Affairs David Malatsi in social development — the meeting is also styled as a policy conference. While the NNP is expected to reaffirm its call for the reintroduction of the death penalty and lend its support to food coupons for the needy, few surprises are expected.
The congress takes place against the background of initial talks on the cooperation pact between the ANC and NNP in all provinces except Limpopo and the Western Cape.
These centre on accommodating the NNP in municipal executive committees, as chairpersons of council portfolio committees, or as delegates to district councils following the recent defection period.
That process has been finalised in Cape Town, where despite a court challenge, the Democratic Alliance has been excluded from all positions except two seats without portfolio on the mayor’s executive team.
In KwaZulu-Natal’s Hibiscus Coast municipality, an NNP member has been appointed deputy mayor. In Mpumalanga, the party has been included in the executive committees of at least three councils, including Barberton and Ermelo.
It is still unclear whether the party will receive at least one seat on each of the mayoral executive committees in metropolitan councils, as agreed in the cooperation agreement reached in November last year.
A key sticking point remains the appointment of NNP members of provincial legislatures to provincial cabinets, as envisaged by the pact.
The Constitution limits the size of provincial cabinets to 11, including the premier. Senior Nats said they did not expect the issue to be resolved before the 2004 elections as the ANC would not, at this stage, drop its own MECs to accommodate the Nats.
However, exploratory talks are under way on NNP appointments to positions in provincial legislatures, such as speaker and committee chairpersons.