Kent Morkel knew his father
The southern Cape is a funny place for the Democratic Alliance. The split between the liberals and the rump Nats in the Cape Town metropolitan DA is well-known, and I've written about it before.
Many have commented that the DA is essentially an urban party. Some believe that the Western Cape and Northern Cape vary this because of a strong country vote, particularly from coloured agricultural labourers. Whatever the truth, the pattern of the DA's electoral support in the Western Cape particularly profoundly shapes how the party operates internally.
The towns of Knysna, Hermanus and Wilderness are liberal ex-DP havens. Several of the other towns, like George, Oudsthoorn and Calvinia owe their political tradition in the DA to the NNP. And the voting pattern amongst the coloured citizens of the Western Cape hinterland differs from the pattern in Cape Town: the DA finds less traction amongst poor coloured voters in the rural Western Cape, contrasted with strong support amongst poor coloured voters in Cape Town (or at least until the ID stuck its oar in).
The southern Cape's political strength is very much buttressed because the party's Provincial Leader is the mayor of George. He commands loyal support from the ex-NNP south coast, from the conservative west coast and grudgingly from the ex-DP south coast also.
Theuns Botha's position in the party is, therefore, strong. But it is not certain. Added together, his rural support doesn't outweigh the voting strength of the (divided) Cape Town metropolis.
The reason for this is because of the credible claim that the DA is fundamentally an urban party presently - even in the Western Cape. Cape Town provides more than 50% of the votes obtained for the party in the Western Cape, overshadowing the performance of the rest of the province combined. It is always more difficult to create large political organisations in country areas, so the metropolitan DA has a natural advantage, which it could use to dominate the provincial party if so it chose.
But instead, the Western Cape DA attempted to overbalance the provincial constitution's democratic mandate in favour of the rural areas. During the 2004 candidate selection process, the Cape Town DA conceded that the rural party would fill 60% of the seats in the electoral college and the city would fill the remaining 40%. Why? It was claimed that an effort be made to prevent disaffection and walkovers. This effort, if the rationale is accepted at face value, seems to have worked fairly well: the DA in the Western Cape suffered few defections in councils since the general election. In fact, the DA gained the West Coast District Municipality: I doubt this would have been possible without placating the west coast DA. (The electoral college deal was overturned by the DA's Federal Legal Commission, but the result of the electoral college stands because the FLC's decision was not retroactive. Special case, special pleading. But it worked.)
Even this left Theuns Botha a few votes short of a mandate to write his list of candidates for the general and provincial election. So he picked up those votes in the city with a little help from the Morkels. This was an interesting choice of ally, because the Morkels are very far from being exemplary representatives of the ex-NNP faction in the city. They play a different game: populism and patronage.
Since the election, since the cross-over period, certainly since the Provincial Congress, the alliance between the Botha faction and the Morkels appears to have died. Kent is supposed to have called in the favour of his electoral college support by being voted DA chairperson. But this is a small play. The urban claim on the province's party structures has grown constitutionally and is restored to its 50% representation in party structures. The urban voice is not that of the Morkels or the ex-NNP faction but that of Helen Zille speaking her clarion voice in Parliament. The country vote, led by Theuns Botha, is scarcely heard.
And now Kent Morkel has admitted to taking about R10000 from the micro-finance company Gilt Edged Management Services (GEMS). This, he says, was for organising a meeting between them and the South African Municipal Workers' Union representing workers in George. The purpose of the meeting was to get some SAMWU applications to GEMS processed administratively by the municipality. Because he wasn't a councillor in that municipality, he believed he was entitled to claim a fee for that work.
Kent was intelligently interrogated by John Maytham a few days ago on Cape Talk. Did he have a contract from GEMS for arranging the meeting? No. Did he pay tax on his earnings? No direct answer. Kent claimed that he had a receipt for the money, and this had to prove that his intent was honest because people don't sign receipts for bribes. What is the truth? The truth is that Kent's career is at the mercy of DA members who must ask whether or not the Morkel reputation is permanently damaged. The truth is that party machinists and brokers have one less faction to manage.
Kent's political fate will be an interesting barometer of the fortunes of the Western Cape DA factions. Kent Morkel seems already to have spent his political capital; his brother Craig's career languishes for so long as the Travelgate scandal is unresolved; their father Gerald is loved by a few, but hated by far too many; the ex-NNP faction is silent; and the Western Cape DA speaks loudest in the voice of Helen Zille.
Many have commented that the DA is essentially an urban party. Some believe that the Western Cape and Northern Cape vary this because of a strong country vote, particularly from coloured agricultural labourers. Whatever the truth, the pattern of the DA's electoral support in the Western Cape particularly profoundly shapes how the party operates internally.
The towns of Knysna, Hermanus and Wilderness are liberal ex-DP havens. Several of the other towns, like George, Oudsthoorn and Calvinia owe their political tradition in the DA to the NNP. And the voting pattern amongst the coloured citizens of the Western Cape hinterland differs from the pattern in Cape Town: the DA finds less traction amongst poor coloured voters in the rural Western Cape, contrasted with strong support amongst poor coloured voters in Cape Town (or at least until the ID stuck its oar in).
The southern Cape's political strength is very much buttressed because the party's Provincial Leader is the mayor of George. He commands loyal support from the ex-NNP south coast, from the conservative west coast and grudgingly from the ex-DP south coast also.
Theuns Botha's position in the party is, therefore, strong. But it is not certain. Added together, his rural support doesn't outweigh the voting strength of the (divided) Cape Town metropolis.
The reason for this is because of the credible claim that the DA is fundamentally an urban party presently - even in the Western Cape. Cape Town provides more than 50% of the votes obtained for the party in the Western Cape, overshadowing the performance of the rest of the province combined. It is always more difficult to create large political organisations in country areas, so the metropolitan DA has a natural advantage, which it could use to dominate the provincial party if so it chose.
But instead, the Western Cape DA attempted to overbalance the provincial constitution's democratic mandate in favour of the rural areas. During the 2004 candidate selection process, the Cape Town DA conceded that the rural party would fill 60% of the seats in the electoral college and the city would fill the remaining 40%. Why? It was claimed that an effort be made to prevent disaffection and walkovers. This effort, if the rationale is accepted at face value, seems to have worked fairly well: the DA in the Western Cape suffered few defections in councils since the general election. In fact, the DA gained the West Coast District Municipality: I doubt this would have been possible without placating the west coast DA. (The electoral college deal was overturned by the DA's Federal Legal Commission, but the result of the electoral college stands because the FLC's decision was not retroactive. Special case, special pleading. But it worked.)
Even this left Theuns Botha a few votes short of a mandate to write his list of candidates for the general and provincial election. So he picked up those votes in the city with a little help from the Morkels. This was an interesting choice of ally, because the Morkels are very far from being exemplary representatives of the ex-NNP faction in the city. They play a different game: populism and patronage.
Since the election, since the cross-over period, certainly since the Provincial Congress, the alliance between the Botha faction and the Morkels appears to have died. Kent is supposed to have called in the favour of his electoral college support by being voted DA chairperson. But this is a small play. The urban claim on the province's party structures has grown constitutionally and is restored to its 50% representation in party structures. The urban voice is not that of the Morkels or the ex-NNP faction but that of Helen Zille speaking her clarion voice in Parliament. The country vote, led by Theuns Botha, is scarcely heard.
And now Kent Morkel has admitted to taking about R10000 from the micro-finance company Gilt Edged Management Services (GEMS). This, he says, was for organising a meeting between them and the South African Municipal Workers' Union representing workers in George. The purpose of the meeting was to get some SAMWU applications to GEMS processed administratively by the municipality. Because he wasn't a councillor in that municipality, he believed he was entitled to claim a fee for that work.
Kent was intelligently interrogated by John Maytham a few days ago on Cape Talk. Did he have a contract from GEMS for arranging the meeting? No. Did he pay tax on his earnings? No direct answer. Kent claimed that he had a receipt for the money, and this had to prove that his intent was honest because people don't sign receipts for bribes. What is the truth? The truth is that Kent's career is at the mercy of DA members who must ask whether or not the Morkel reputation is permanently damaged. The truth is that party machinists and brokers have one less faction to manage.
Kent's political fate will be an interesting barometer of the fortunes of the Western Cape DA factions. Kent Morkel seems already to have spent his political capital; his brother Craig's career languishes for so long as the Travelgate scandal is unresolved; their father Gerald is loved by a few, but hated by far too many; the ex-NNP faction is silent; and the Western Cape DA speaks loudest in the voice of Helen Zille.
posted by mal @ 1:22 PM
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