South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has nominated New National Party (NNP) member Freddy Adams to be one of its representatives in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for the Western Cape.
This follows a change in the representation of political parties in the Western Cape legislature, which saw three NNP members join the ANC. This means that one of the two NNP members in the NCOP — the second house of Parliament — falls away and became an ANC post.
Thus, the ANC had the right to three (of six) permanent representatives from the Western Cape. The ANC, however, today nominated Freddy Adams, chief provincial secretary of the NNP, as an ANC delegate to the NCOP.
The KwaZulu-Natal legislature recently carried out a similar resolution allowing Piet Matthee, a longstanding NNP member and leader of the NNP caucus in the second chamber, to also take up an ANC seat. This followed the defection of one of three KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature members to the ANC.
This means that two of the seven NNP members of 54 permanent delegates in the NCOP are there at the political behest of the ANC.
Garth Strachen, ANC chief whip in the Western Cape legislature, said that the resolution granting Adams the seat was passed unanimously. He said that this was in terms of the political agreement between the ANC and the NNP.
”We have a cooperative agreement and we are sticking to the letter and spirit of that co-operative agreement … we are not going to abandon that agreement even if the NNP has lost members to other parties including three to ourselves.”
Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader Helen Zille said in a statement: ”The ANC has risked dissension in its own ranks by overlooking an ANC member for promotion in order to favour Mr Adams. The reason for this is also clear. The ANC wants to keep the NNP alive, on a ventilator, till the next election to assist the ANC in its strategy to win the Western Cape.”
”When the NNP has outlived its usefulness, it will be annihilated by the ANC,” she said.
While Adams was not immediately available for comment, Matthee told said that he remained a loyal member of the NNP. – I-Net Bridge