The National Party found a new weapon at its weekend bosberaad — fear. Marion Edmunds reports
THE spectre that looms large in National Party nightmares is a one-party state, belonging to the ANC in 1996. This fear motivates the party in its low moments, it’s a focus at bosberade and bands the members together when differences appear to threaten party unity.
Party spokesperson Marthinus van Schalkwyk said this week, just after a weekend Parliamentary caucus bosberaad: “Already the ANC has an overwhelmingly strong presence in all spheres of life, it has an almost overpowering presence in people’s lives … we must ensure that the ANC does not get a two-thirds majority government. Its a hell of a challenge but that is what is motivating many people in the National
The Nats have returned from the weekend’s bosberaad motivated, with the firm intention of regaining their public figure. They want to defy recent media reports of internal discontent and weakness by impressing the electorate with muscle, stature, strength, definition.
“We have decided to concentrate more on our oppositional role, to create the impression in the electorate’s minds that our policies differ from the ANC’s,” said Van Schalkwyck. “We are going to contribute a lot more on the policy side, especially in crime and education.”
The party would probably heighten its impression on the electorate if it also worked on developing curves and charisma. Despite the best of intentions, the average NP MP remains strangely sedentary in committee, often silent and bored in the face of a vivacious chorus of ANC voices. It is unlikely that FW de Klerk’s cracking whip will make backbenchers witty or effective, but then perhaps that is not quite the NP’s style, or its
Through extensive navel-gazing since even before the transition, the NP has come to believe its greatest strength is its political experience. This week NP whips scoffed at the ANC’s inability to manage Parliament and boasted that they, if given half a chance, could run a tighter shop.
The Nats also see strength in their leader De Klerk. Despite the allegations of dirty tricks, the apartheid past, he has managed to stamp his angst-ridden face on the transition and still cracks the whip in his party. It is hoped that his stature alone will draw the votes.
But perhaps the Nats’ greatest strength is what makes them sweat and tremble in their darkest nights –fear of the worst. Knowing fear so intimately themselves, the party knows how to exploit the fears of the electorate in the face of ANC laissez-faire and extravagant promises.
With four to five strident media releases a day, they are continuing to exploit fears of a run-down public service, fears of collapsing education, fears of runaway crime and ruthless violence, fears of communism, fears of the sort of government found north of the Limpopo.