ANDISIWE MAKINANA
THE DA’s coloured councillors in the City of Cape Town are disgruntled over what they believe was a snub of one of their own by the party.
However, the DA says this is a possible misunderstanding of the processes involved in the appointment of party members to Parliament.
The Sunday Independent has been told by two DA councillors that Denis Joseph, who was next on the list of candidates to become MPs, learnt through a media report about two weeks ago that a white colleague would be sworn in.
The two councillors added that two weeks before the media report, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille had announced at a DA caucus meeting that Joseph would be leaving the council for Parliament.
Joseph’s colleagues had congratulated him and wished him well, “only for him to learn through a newspaper that someone else would be sworn in”.
This has led to tensions in the “coloured caucus”, which believes Joseph was overlooked because of his skin colour, said the two councillors, who spoke independently of each other.
Another councillor, who is a member of the council’s portfolio committee on community services, said Joseph had previously been announced in the council as the new chairperson of the committee, an appointment that was subsequently reversed because of his expected move to Parliament.
The Sunday Independent has been told that Joseph has written to the party leadership to enquire about the developments.
Joseph refused to comment on the matter on Thursday, saying there was an internal process in place. De Lille did not respond to requests for comment.
“I need to go through the process before I can speak to the media,” said Joseph, before referring questions to James Selfe, the chairman of the federal council, the DA’s policy-making and governing body between congresses.
Selfe dismissed the matter as a possible misunderstanding of party procedure. Joseph was No 1 on the list of party members to go to the provincial legislature, where there is no vacancy at the moment, he said on Friday.
“However, some people in the party, including the Cape Town mayor (De Lille), were under the impression or were informed that the person who is No 1 on the list to the provincial legislature is also No 1 (on the list) to the NCOP (National Council of Provinces),” Selfe said.
The DA has a reserve list for the National Assembly, which Geordin Hill-Lewis topped, but none for the NCOP. In case of a vacancy in the NCOP, there is procedure to be followed in filling it.
In the recent past, the DA has in had two vacancies in Parliament – one in the National Assembly and the other in the National Council of Provinces, Selfe said.
Political analyst Keith Gottschalk said it was possible that if somebody had misunderstood the procedure, “there’s going to be tension inside (the party)”.
“(And) considering the South African background, it’s more likely to be a racial tension.”
Over the past few weeks, there have been media reports of racial tensions in the DA, with the party accused of failing to transform despite using black faces during elections to get votes.