WHO IS . . . TONY LEON?
David Beresford
An obituary on the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, memorialised him as “a gadfly on the rump of civilisation”.
The same might be said of Democratic Party leader Tony Leon as he buzzes noisily around the rump of South African society. The question facing the DP is whether he can count for anything more in the history of the country.
Although municipal election results are rarely given much weight by psephologists where the national standing of political parties is concerned, there were few commentators who failed to attach significance to the outcome of the elections in Bergvliet, Brakpan and Rosettenville last week.
Taken in conjunction with other recent results, they appear to spell the end of the National Party as a significant force in South African politics – reducing it to a regional grouping dependent on coloured support.
But if the DP takes over from them, what does that make of Leon: is he the “new face of white South Africa” ?
It is a description which might elicit an ironic chuckle from his old man, Judge Raymond Leon, who (gossip had it at the bar) as a Jew was never quite “white enough” in the eyes of the Nats to gain the judge-presidency of Natal which many felt was his due.
The youngest of two sons, Tony was born in Durban on December 15 1956 as Anthony James Leon. Educated at Kearsney College, his performance at the University of the Witwatersrand (Claude Franks Memorial Prize for Jurisprudence, Wits Best Speaker, president of the Law Students’ Council, vice-president of the Student Representative Council …) suggested he would be treading in daddy’s footsteps. But in 1989 he served notice that here was a Leon who was a bit more pushy when it came getting to getting what he saw as his just deserts.
The occasion was Helen Suzman’s retirement as South Africa’s parliamentary conscience. Her heir-apparent was Irene Menell – wife of mining magnate Clive – and the hand-over seemed routine, until Leon packed the Houghton constituency meeting at Menell’s house and snatched the prize.
The moment heralded the arrival of what has since been termed “muscular liberalism” in South Africa. And as he carved his way into the soft underbelly of the liberal establishment, Leon demonstrated just how muscular that was.
Within five years of taking the Houghton seat he had also grabbed the leadership of the party. That was in October 1994, after the DP had managed to muster only a miserable 1,7% of the vote under Zach de Beer in the liberation election.
A year later Leon signalled that the days of church-fte politics were over for the Democrats, staging a federal congress with all the razzmatazz of an American party convention – dried ice-smoke, video footage of waves crashing and lions roaring …
The performance was met with some cynicism in party ranks – conjured up in the story of the voter who walked into the DP’s Kimberley office and explained: “I’m not going to vote for you, but I’m registering here, because I don’t trust any of the other parties with my registration form.”
But since then Leon seems to have started persuading them to put their vote where their trust is and has quickly established himself as the leader of the country’s not-so-silent minority.
He has done so with a display of outspoken aggressiveness which is totally new to a South African liberal tradition more attuned to the politics of passive resistance.
Whether snubbing Iran’s President Hashemi Rafsanjani as a friend of terrorists, spurning President Nelson Mandela’s coalition offer (“We won’t be muzzled”), demanding a state of emergency to deal with crime, or accusing the African National Congress of “sinister” attempts to “stifle dissent and distort debate”, Leon has been, above all, uncompromising in his language and strategic approach.
It is a style which appears to come naturally to a man whose best friends do not hesitate to describe him as arrogant; a man nursing the insufferable conviction that he is, when all is said and done, right.
In politics, however, it is not necessarily the best thing to be right. Earlier this year Leon launched his most savage attack to date on the record of the ANC in government, accusing the president of “racial demagoguery” and the liberation movement of promoting racial division.
In a 34-page document he accused the ANC of making a “concerted effort” to smear its political opponents as “apartheid spies” or “racists”. He charged the ANC with mobilising around race in “an attempt to tap into all the fears, resentments and suspicions built up under apartheid”.
There had been “a creeping re-introduction of race policies in South African society” by the ANC since 1994. There had been moves to “systemise” these policies and introduce them to new areas of society, including tertiary education and sport.
The public and private employment sectors were also being “compelled to re-introduce racial classification and racial discrimination”, he charged
In many respects there was some basis for Leon’s charges. But one striking blind spot in his political vision was betrayed by the title of the document: The Death of the Rainbow Nation.
It reflected a complete failure to realise that, if the Rainbow Nation is dead, there is no room in it for the white skin of Tony Leon.
Born: In Durban on December 15 1956
Defining characteristics: Aggressive, arrogant
Favourite people: Politicians in parties other than the Democratic Party who provide him with ammunition for more anti-corruption, anti-crime and anti-racism tirades
Least favourite people: Politicians in parties other than the DP who point out that his party is taking over from the National Party
Likely to say: “The African National Congress-South African Communist Party alliance is making a mess of everything”
Least likely to say: “The DP is joining forces with the ANC-SACP alliance”