By Angela Quintal and Boyd Webb
Democratic Alliance parliamentarian Tertius Delport has been appointed the party's "shadow justice minister" at the expense of another veteran, Sheila Camerer, after failing twice to be elected to a leadership post under Helen Zille.
Last month Sandra Botha defeated Delport in the election for the party's leadership in the National Assembly. Zille has opted to remain Cape Town mayor.
In May, Delport also lost the race to be the chairperson of the party's federal legal commission to Camerer.
Camerer, a former deputy minister of justice, has held a justice portfolio post for 18 of her 20 years as an MP in the National Party (NP), the New National Party (NNP) and the DA.
Delport, a former NP cabinet minister, is a constitutional expert and has an Afrikaner constituency, which Zille is keen to accommodate. The move to appoint him the party's justice spokesperson is in line with Zille's pledge to ensure a diversity of voices in key DA posts.
Camerer said at the weekend that she was given the option of choosing between the positions of justice spokesperson and federal legal commission head.
She opted for the justice portfolio, but the DA's federal executive overruled her because they did not believe that the results of a democratic election, in which she was voted legal commission chairperson, should be overturned.
"I respect the wishes of the party," she said.
Camerer, who has served on the Judicial Service Commission since her days as an NNP MP, is expected to continue to serve on the body, while Delport will remain in the Magistrate's Commission.
Meanwhile, former DA leader Tony Leon, who like Delport will remain an MP until 2009, has a new job.
Zille has appointed him "shadow foreign minister" and he will be the voice and face of the party on foreign matters.
However, he will be national chairperson Joe Seremane's deputy spokesperson on Africa.
Leon replaces former chief whip Douglas Gibson, who will now represent the party in the National Assembly's finance committee.
New chief whip Ian Davidson said the appointments were the result of the changes that have followed Zille's election as party leader.
Zille said that while it was expected that a few people may be unhappy about the changes, most seemed to accept their new portfolios quite amicably.