Aucamp in bid to save AEB seat

2003-02-12 12:26

Cape Town - Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging leader Cassie Aucamp will go to the Pretoria High Court on Thursday to overturn his suspension from the organisation and save his parliamentary seat.

Aucamp was suspended from the AEB at a weekend meeting of his party's head council and was ordered to resign as a member of parliament.

He said on Wednesday his application probably would be heard at 10:00.

"We are going for an urgent interdict to declare the meeting and decision null and void."

Aucamp said Saturday's meeting had not been properly constituted. However, he declined to elaborate further, saying he did not want to prejudice his case.

If Aucamp's court challenge fails, he will be replaced in parliament by the party's Mpumalanga leader, Werner Weber.

Weber told Sunday newspaper Rapport at the weekend that his task was to ensure order in the party and to return it to its founding principles.

Wanted to protect AEB's sole seat

Aucamp was among those MPs who jumped the gun last year by announcing he would defect to a new party, and then found that he did not have the protection of floor-crossing legislation after a court challenge by the United Democratic Movement.

Members of his party then moved to oust him and to protect the AEB's sole seat in parliament.

Aucamp wants the AEB to be part of a new political party, the Christian National Forum, which he helped establish in June.

However, he faces fierce resistance from Conservative Party-aligned members - including Dr Willie Snyman, the AEB's Limpopo leader - who were opposed to the inclusion of coloured people in the new party.

Draft legislation that will allow MPs and MPLs to defect to another party without losing their seats is before the National Assembly's justice committee and is expected to be adopted next month.

Defections are legal at local-government level.

- SAPA