The official opposition Democratic Alliance has selected its team representing the nine provinces in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) but former Western Cape premier and former Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel failed to be selected for one of two Western Cape seats available.
Tygerberg (Cape Town) councillor Denise Robinson and former member of the provincial legislature Alan Winde — who did not make re-election to the legislature in the April 14 election — were successful instead.
Antoinette Versveld, who defected to the Democratic Party before the 1999 election and has been the sole DA representative in the NCOP until April, also did not make it.
Morkel, however, remains a member of the Cape Town city council — at least until municipal elections next year.
Among the other victims of the race for the two Western Cape seats were Charles Redcliffe — a former House of Representatives MP for Schauderville in the old tricameral Parliament and a defector from the New National Party in the National Assembly last year — and Archie Figlan, the only black African candidate for the Western Cape slot, who also did not make it to Parliament.
Federal executive chairperson James Selfe said there was still some question over whether Robinson and Winde would go to the NCOP or go to the legislature — with one or two of the legislature members going to the NCOP instead.
In Gauteng Sherry Chen, the only Chinese representative in the DA, was re-nominated for the NCOP in the one seat going to the DA in that chamber. She was sworn in shortly before the election after she replaced Bernice Sigabi-Sono, who had resigned.
In Limpopo province Molatjo Thetheng has become the only black African selected by the party for the NCOP. Juanita Terreblanche, daughter of North West provincial leader Chris Hattingh, won the one seat going for the North West. She beat, among others, another black African, Winston Rabotapi, for the post.
Party official Greg Krumbock became the KwaZulu-Natal representative after having been the Mpumalanga representative in the last Parliament. In his place in Mpumalanga is former National Party MP Watty Watson.
In the Eastern Cape Wilhelm le Roux, former National Party MP for Uitenhage, will take up the one seat for that province allocated to the DA from that province.
In the Northern Cape, former Gauteng legislature member Shelley Loe won the sole seat.
The Free State seat has not been filled at this stage.
The bulk of the seats making up 54 permanent delegates to the NCOP will go to the African National Congress. Spokesperson Steyn Speed could not immediately say when the process of selection of the ruling party’s candidates would be completed. — I-Net Bridge