Marion Edmunds
THE National Party is not interested in recruiting African National Congress renegade Bantu Holomisa, says NP deputy secretary general David Malatsi, as he is on his way down.
“He is not on our recruitment list,” he told the Mail & Guardian. “Personally, I am suspicious of his staying in power because to be a successful politician you must have the stamina to stay there for as long as possible, and I think, in this case, it is more about demotion than a real belief in creating a new political party.”
Malatsi’s comments are slighting in the light of Holomisa’s gracious invitation to NP leaders to attend his “consultative conference” next year, with a particular mention of meeting Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel to discuss politics.
Kriel had earlier indicated that he wished to talk to Holomisa, but it is believed that he wanted to discuss taxi violence and not political formations.
“I doubt it was about recruitment but I would appreciate a meeting as I could tell him about my consultative conference and invite him along,” Holomisa said hopefully this week.
Holomisa’s invitation is ironic given that Holomisa and Kriel were at each other’s throats three years ago during multi-party negotiations, when Kriel, as minister of law and order, ordered South African soldiers to conduct a cross-border raid into Transkei to attack so-called “PAC terrorists”. During the raid several sleeping children were killed.
However, it is likely that the NP and Holomisa will continue winking at each other from a safe political distance, because they both fall on the other side of the ANC fence and are actually gunning for the same political space, after 1999 – that of the official opposition. While their approaches are slightly different, they both claim to represent morality, in the face of ANC expediency.
Holomisa’s dream is for a party to germinate from his consultative conference, which will embrace all political affiliations, colours and classes.
`We would invite farmers, right-wingers, progressive thinking minds … we would write a manifesto. We would have to decide whether to go for local, provincial or national government in order to improve the declining standards of living.
“The most important thing to concentrate on are checks and balances to stop this arrogance of power displayed by certain individuals who believe their decisions are not to be questioned.”
While Holomisa is championing the morality of clean government, he does not satisfy the NP’s desire for a party based on a clear ideology of “moral, Christian values and capitalism”.
Malatsi indicated the the NP was still pursuing its dream of a mass movement based on values rather than skin colour. He confessed that there had been no movement on this dream since it was painted as a vision by NP leader FW de Klerk earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Justice and Freedom Alliance said in a statement that they had tried to court Holomisa, with the aim of starting a moderate party to oppose factions of the ANC.
While acknowledging failure, they poured scorn on the NP, and said they were the ones with the hot-line to God and black Christian voters.