The Democratic Party performs well in parliament but leader Tony Leon wants growth in support as well, writes Gaye Davis
DEMOCRATIC Party leader Tony Leon says he was sounding a “wake-up call”, rather than a death-knell, by warning that the party’s future depended on its performance in local government elections.
Leon told a public meeting in Rosebank, Johannesburg on Monday the DP’s future existence was “on the line” in the municipal elections. This week he said his intention was not to spark a debate about the party’s long-term viability, but to “arrest a mindset of complacency” and activate support that existed, but was
Ironically, part of Leon’s problem lies with the role played by the DP’s seven MPs and three senators in parliament. It has a weight out of all proportion to their number. Their energy and efficiency — most questions asked in parliament last session came from the DP, for example — hew for the party a chiselled profile. The downside is that this also signals to supporters that all is well and that they can sit back.
As Leon spelled out this week, it isn’t enough for the DP to be effective in parliament — “we must have a base and demonstrable growth”. If the party does as disastrously in the local government poll as it did last April, when it haemorrhaged support to the National Party, it would certainly have to take a serious look at its viability.
First step will be wooing back the estimated 40 percent of DP supporters nationwide who “went Awol” and cast their votes for the National Party last April. “We want them to come home,” said Leon. Another will be convincing those still behind the party that “it’s not enough for people to praise us for the job we’re doing in parliament without being prepared to put their shoulders to the wheel”.
A brainstorming session at Gordon’s Bay last weekend saw party strategists and provincial and national MPs surveying “the political landscape over the next 12 months or so” and the party’s future within it.
Local government elections held the key to the party’s future, Leon said. “We got squeezed in the national elections because it was essentially between two poles — the liberation forces and the non-liberation movement. Nationally, people voted either for Mandela or De Klerk — it was a two-person beauty contest. But on the provincial ballot people voted differently — with their heads.”
The DP wanted to regain its “heartland” support — voters in key urban centres. Although the party gained only 1,7 percent of the national vote last April, Leon believes this is no indication of the support it actually enjoys in the metropoles — but which has to be activated.
“Expanding our base will be a lot easier than a year ago. Transitional metropolitan structures and sub- structures offer increased opportunity: the DP has 10 councillors sitting on the Soweto sub-structure who all have a community base, a network and a rapidly developing infrastructure.”
A “solutions-based” approach is also key to the party’s future progress. “People must know every vote for DP stands for something specific,” said Leon.
The party is building policy around economic empowerment, for example. One idea involves the bulk of proceeds from the sale of state enterprises being put into a scheme that will offer people earning less than, say, R20 000 a year a free unit trust certificate. The idea is that the unit trust gets shares in the newly privatised venture so that the certificate holder becomes, indirectly, the owner of shares in it. Units could be used to negotiate a loan, as collateral for a home or as an investment for the future. More importantly, the country’s most marginalised would be getting a stake in the economy.
Leon discounted the possibility of the DP seeking alliances to ensure its future should it not make the gains it wants to in the municipal poll.
But chief constitutional negotiator Colin Eglin has tabled a private member’s bill aimed at scrapping a constitutional clause that forces MPs who cross the floor to resign their seat. If successful, it could open the way for new alliances and has already prompted speculation along the lines of “who would cross if they
Leon refused to speculate, but said the DP had to be “in a position to take advantage of any situation arising”. Issue-specific alliances were already in the offing, especially on constitutional issues such as federalism and individual rights.