Malatsi lawyers in talks
2003-04-10 15:20
Cape Town - Lawyers for the New National Party and ousted deputy social services minister David Malatsi are discussing a possible settlement of his claim to a seat in parliament.
This follows a suggestion by Cape High Court judge Siraj Desai on Thursday morning, as the hearing of Malatsi's application entered its second day.
Malatsi, who is facing criminal charges of corruption related to the Roodefontein funding furore as well as NNP disciplinary charges, has brought the application against the NNP and Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala.
He claims that the NNP promised him a seat in the National Assembly if he resigned the deputy minister's post, which he did in January this year.
The NNP argues, however, that even if the promise was made, Malatsi did not meet the conditions attached to it, and that his subsequent conduct, including "defamatory" allegations against party leaders, ruled him out of consideration.
On Thursday morning Malatsi's advocate, Pete Mihalik, told Desai his client was abandoning his claim to the vacant seat, and instead wanted the court to order the NNP to nominate a person, not necessarily Malatsi, within a reasonable time.
The reason he was asking for this, he said, was that since mid-January Malatsi had been "hanging in limbo".
He could not move on with his life while he did not know for sure whether he would be nominated or not.
- SAPA