Van Schalkwyk won't be premier
2004-04-21 14:42
Cape Town - New National Party leader and Western Cape premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk has decided not to seek re-appointment as premier, it emerged on Wednesday.
NNP media director Carol Johnson said Van Schalkwyk was on both the NNP's national and provincial lists, and had to choose one.
He elected to be on the national list, and would be sworn in as one of the NNP's seven MPs in the national assembly on Friday.
Johnson said the NNP believed that because the African National Congress had received most votes in the province, the next Western Cape premier should come from the ANC part of the coalition government.
She declined to comment on the possibility of Van Schalkwyk being offered a cabinet post in President Thabo Mbeki's new government, saying only that negotiations between the two parties were continuing.
- SAPA