clean?
Charlene Smith
Rallies and meetings held by Roelf Meyer’s New Movement Process (NMP) and Bantu Holomisa’s National Consultative Forum (NCF) are enthusiastically attended, whether in Karoo villages, urban centres or townships. And National Party members are continuing to drift to Meyer.
But how clean are the alliances Meyer and Holomisa have been prepared to enter into?
More than 1 000 people fled Richmond in KwaZulu-Natal last week after violence broke out between supporters of the forum and the African National Congress around the funeral of two murdered NCF supporters. They died a week after the slaying of four ANC members – two of whom had days before trounced Sifiso Nkabinde, the Holomisa supporter and former ANC cadre, in local elections.
Without effective policing and in a politically volatile area, it is difficult to know who is doing what to whom. Political propaganda machines from all sides are working overtime, aided by an uncritical media.
But should the fledgling party be taking on organisers with reputations as warlords?
Nkabinde has been a NCF member for little more than a month – he began as a warlord with the ANC. After almost two decades of civil war in KwaZulu-Natal, it is hard to find a leader not implicated in violence.
Professor Andre du Toit, of the department of political science at the University of Cape Town, says Meyer must “be totally mad to get into bed with warlords in KwaZulu- Natal”. But he notes that other parties also have relationships with warlords.
Equally difficult are the NMP/NCF talks with Lucas Mangope, former bantustan leader facing fraud and theft charges. Officials in his United Christian Democratic Party say they are considering collapsing the party, after Mangope resigns, and joining Holomisa.
The members whom Meyer and Holomisa are attracting are conservative – Meyer uses the term moderate. They are religious and place family as a priority. They are unhappy with the ANC government.
They probably care little about Nkabinde, who may or may not be unfairly tainted, and Mangope. They are less concerned about the past than the future.
Meyer and Holomisa intend launching a party with “unity” as a theme, and with a new morality. However, morality begins inside the party. They cannot propose to address crime, corruption and immorality if they are taking on board those implicated in criminal activity.
The ANC and NP both fear the potential might of the new party and are working hard to discredit it, but Meyer and Holomisa need to work as hard not to supply so much easy ammunition.