White and coloured former Nationalists in the Democratic Alliance have struck a deal ahead of the party’s key Western Cape congress, to defuse leadership tensions in the party and prevent a public display of factionalism.
At issue is the Western Cape leadership of the DA, which was being contested by Kent Morkel, son of former National Party premier and former Labour Party veteran Gerald Morkel, and Theuns Botha, the current leader.
The factions have now agreed that Botha will be retained in that position, while Morkel will be elected unopposed as Western Cape party chair. Former George mayor Marius Swart, now a national MP, has withdrawn his candidacy against Morkel for the provincial chairmanship.
The current provincial chairperson, Danny de la Cruz, now a provincial legislature member, makes way for Morkel, leader of the party’s 70-member caucus in the 200-seat Cape Town city council.
Any attempt to field surprise candidates nominated from the floor of the congress — being held at Stilbaai, Botha’s political heartland — has been proscribed, in a clear manoeuvre to present a united front.
The purpose of the deal is to avoid dividing the party ahead of the next round of municipal elections. It sets Morkel up to march into the position of Cape Town mayoral candidate in the municipal poll.
There is wide support among DA liberals for former provincial leader and national MP Helen Zille. However, Zille has made it clear she will not be running for mayor.
At a recent metropolitan regional conference, Zille warned of factions in the party who were undermining its standing by jockeying for positions.
The Western Cape provincial congress is arguably the DA’s most important regional event. It is also the first congress since this year’s national election, in which the party failed to regain a foothold in government at provincial level.
While party insiders argue that becoming provincial chairperson does not automatically mean Morkel will be the mayoral candidate in the municipal election, expected late next year or early in 2006, it gives his chances a considerable boost.
Morkel himself says that there is no automatic link between the two jobs. But asked if he had ambitions for the mayor’s office, he said: “Yes, I do.”
The repositioning of the party will be the focus of this weekend’s congress — to turn the DA into what Botha has called a “rainbow” party to attract more support among black voters. It should combine the elements of being African with good elements of liberalism, he has argued.
Employing methods of “pure liberalism”, however, would not work in a society with two economies — a First World “first economy” and a dependent secondary economy. Liberalism would be too slow a mechanism to obviate that, Botha argued.