Marion Edmunds
The Foundation for Equality Before the Law has spent its last penny on its first rally, to be held in Pretoria on Saturday.
Chairman of the Foundation, Dr Theo de Jager said this week that the Foundation was spending R22 000 on the rally at which it hoped to make its first public statement.
The Foundation, set up in November by the Junior Rapportryers and Dames Aktueel in order to protect Afrikaner’s rights, hopes to draw a mere 2 000 people to the rally, including ex- national servicemen, ex-policemen, ex- generals, and Afrikaners from all political
While the rally has the support of the likes of the former Police Commissioner Johan van der Merwe and the Transvaal Agricultural Union, the Foundation clearly lacks influence and backing, and it is not sweeping the Afrikaner nation up into a frenzy of
Yet the rally has touched a chord in many politicians, at a time when the relationship between the Afrikaner nation and the ANC is faltering. The truth commission, the Magnus Malan Trial, problems around affirmative action coupled with the ANC’s latest statements on the Volkstaat have alienated even the best of the ANC’s Afrikaners friends, the Freedom Front.
The FF is seeking an urgent meeting with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki to discuss his public rejection of the Volkstaat. FF MP Pieter Groenewald said that progress on the Volkstaat proposals has been made in bilateral meetings with the ANC over December, and that the recent statements made at the ANC’s 84th birthday celebrations contradicted this
The ANC’s scalding reaction to the rally reflects its insecurities about its relationship with the Afrikaner. The ANC this week accused the Foundation of trying to drag Afrikaners back into the dark days of apartheid. It accused the Foundation of spreading lies about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It has hit out at Deputy President FW de Klerk and the National Party for undercover support of the Foundation — support which De Klerk denies. He will not attend the rally and it is unlikely that any senior National Party members will do so either.
A cooling of the political intimacy between ANC and Afrikaner suits De Klerk, but it also suits the far right who have been dormant since the elections.
The AWB has jumped into the fray, calling for the resignation of the Freedom Front from Parliament for having failed the Afrikaner. The AWB said that Afrikaner nationalists should join the broad extra-Parliamentary front and start with practical ways of achieving freedom “within our lifetime”.
Both ANC and Afrikaner politicians will be watching to see who holds sway at the rally.