Winde vote for consistency or change

Votes have been counted, seats allocated and now the real work begins.

The first task of the Premier-designate, Alan Winde, will be to assemble his yes-men and woman. This includes his cabinet and over the following two weeks he will be consulting to appoint that team.

Of the former DA MPLs four are retiring, two moving to the National Assembly and 20 will be returning to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. Except for Helen Zille retiring her entire cabinet is returning.  Winde can be consistent and only appoint a replacement for himself.

Winde and his DA caucus could also use to their advantage the fact that only 27.80% or 5 of the 18 opposition MPLs are former members and 66.70% have never served in a legislature.

A possible successor for Winde at Community Safety is chairperson of the standing committee, Mirreile Wenger. She knows the portfolio, is competent and being female counts in her favour. Being married to the whistleblower in the Patricia de Lille-saga, Craig Kesson, might raise the eyebrows though and could make a few people uncomfortable.

Another option is moving Albert Fritz, who previously occupied the position. I have two scenarios replacing Fritz at Social Development.

First scenario is Anroux Marais and being replaced at Arts, Culture and Sport by Masizole Mnqasela (let’s be honest his promotion is long overdue).

Second scenario is dr. Ivan Meyer, he previously occupied the position. This leaves vacant the all-important finance portfolio.

A prominent DA member, who served as shadow finance minister, is however moving to the legislature and rumour has it that David Maynier has his eye on the finance ministry.

Maynier was Winde’s campaign manager and fit for purpose, I have no doubt that he will be included in the executive council. The trick is that the finance portfolio is viewed as second most senior after that of premier, and both these occupied by white men in a coloured majority province is sending the wrong message.

Consistency might be a safer bet. Meyer is also deputy federal chairperson of the DA and the most senior coloured leader in the party.

Meyer could make space for Maynier and move to Local Government and Development Planning, but it is highly unlikely that Anton Bredell will move.

A likely portfolio for Bredell, who is provincial chairperson, would be to move to the vacant Chief Whip position. Some will consider this a demotion and others might raise concern at separating party and state as both positions are administrative.

If Bredell is not the new Chief Whip someone who also deserves to be considered is Beverley Schafer. Having a woman in this portfolio could also be the DA silencing critics that their shortage of female leaders.

Schafer’s move to the 5^th floor leaves vacant the Economic Opportunities portfolio, one she could possible be handing over to Maynier – unless the unlikely happen and he and Meyer swap portfolios.

Should Schafer not move another strong contender for Chief Whip is Andricus van der Westhuizen. The former MP’s move to the provincial legislature is surely not to be closer to retirement. In showing confidence in the next generation the Deputy Chief Whip position could likely go to Daylin Mitchell. To date the youngest person to become WCPP MPL and who did well in his first term.

Van der Westhuizen could likely also be deputy speaker. He was once upon a time the speaker of Stellenbosch Municipality. Another possible candidate for this position is Masizole Mnqasela, whose promotion as said is long overdue.

In the fifth parliament the second most important portfolio was occupied by a coloured woman. Considering that the former deputy speaker, Piet Pretorius, retired it is highly unlikely the DA will replace Sharna Fernandez as speaker. Despite some minor flaws, for a first term member and speaker she did well. With the Patricia de Lille-saga still fresh, not retaining her opens a can of worms – critics will have a field day ‘attacking’ the DA of how people of colour, especially woman, are rejected/demoted if they become too popular.

So here’s my three list:

Point of Order to disrupt

Democracy was the biggest loser when the ANC in the Western Cape Legislature disappointed me on Friday 20^th February 2015. Their disruptions took place less than 24 hours after the head of state appealed to all to be calm, respect our democratic institutions and to play the ball not the man.

The ANC clearly copied the EFF when starting the sitting with a Point of Order, they also copied the EFF by trying to make it as difficult as possible for the Speaker and for her to call in security to remove members. It is clear parties entered the chamber with a plan.

While both parties made some blunders no one really scored, but it is the ANC who looks like the biggest loser.

Whether intentional or not, EFF tactics were copied disrupting a sitting of a democratic institution. This happened at Parliament and now also at two provincial legislatures. While these actions show after two decades our democracy is maturing, it also holds a threat as soon municipal councillors will copy these disruptive tactics and try it during their meetings – that would be a sad day for democracy as municipal councils meet once a quarter and service delivery will suffer from this.

ANC Chief Whip, Pierre Uys, was within his right to raise a point of order. His point of order was on an incident that occurred on December 4^th, 2014 – where racist remarks were made by the Premier of the Western Cape and the Leader of the Official Opposition in the legislature, the Zille withdrew her remark, but Fransman refused. Speaker Sharna Fernandez responded to Uys' Point of Order – which in all honesty, even though Uys put it in context, felt like a statement.

Having said the above, I agree and feel EFF MPL, Nazier Paulsen, gave a good summary in his response to the events: The Opposition's concerns are valid and nothing prevents the Opposition from still referring the matter for judiciary inquiry if the outcome is still unsatisfactory.

Why the ANC disappointed me:

One should first admit that the ANC MPL’s did not disrupt Premier Helen Zille’s State of the Province Address. The ANC in the legislature did disrupt the house, that prevented the Premier from delivering her State of the Province Address and that is why I’m disappointed as it is the same party who condemned the Economic Freedom Fighters from disrupting a Joint Sitting of Parliament when President Jacob Zuma, had to deliver the State of the Nation Address.

While everyone in the province might not have voted for the DA, all parties accepted the outcome and whether we like it or not Helen Zille was re-elected to lead the province.

When the ANC announced their A-team in June 2014 it said it wants to hold the DA accountable and see real improvements. They failed on both objectives…

I would have loved to hear the premier address the province in outlining what her government is planning to better the lives of all.

The ANC MPLs should have allowed the Premier to deliver her address, after the second adjournment and then hold the DA government accountable on what was not achieved and also debate if the plans will bring real improvement.

The Leader of the Opposition in the House, disappointed me when he raised a point of order about a live feed and what was more disappointing is that fellow MPLs supported his point by trying the correct the Speaker that a live feed has been cut.

Anyone who follows SOPA would know (1) there is no live feed to the TV and (2) the feed that goes from the House to the Parliamentary channel goes via the National Legislature and is not operated by the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. Marius Fransman and Pierre Uys should have checked the facts before making themselves look bad.

A problem can only be addressed if you admit there is one, same with racism – as it is still alive, not only in the Western Cape but South Africa. Allow me my 5 seconds:

It is ironic that the ANC – the same party who says the colourd vote is important – and have a march against racism in the province (a day before the State of the Province Address), decided to ‘attack’ a colourd lady - who has one of the most senior positions in the province - and say she is not capable of being the presiding officer. And to make matters worse, a white male – who happens to be a former member of the National Party started the attack.

As a footnote:

ANC MPLs knew that ‘attacking’ and criticizing Premier Zille would not work and they decided to go for the Speaker. In politics this is probably allowed but accusing her of acting bias and partisan was not fair, given she asked the Chief Whip of the governing party to take his seat and allowed the Chief Whip of the opposition to complete his points of order.

So she made a blunder or two and created room for the opposition to criticize, but she tried to apply the rules, constitution and treated all members equal. To top it all she managed to keep her cool and not call the police for disruptive members.

The ANC had a point of order, but the order of the day was never achieved.