Hennie Bester is the Democratic Party’s blue-eyed boy in the Western Cape, writes Chiara Carter
`Hennie who?” is the likely response of Capetonians when they hear the name of the man who might well hold the balance of power in the Western Cape after the elections.
But while Western Cape Democratic Party leader Hennie Bester might not be a household name, in political circles he is known as “Slim Hennie” (Clever Hennie) – a reference to his political acumen.
Thirty-five-year-old Bester cut his political teeth in the 1980s. He sprang to prominence as leader of a delegation of Stellenbosch students who wanted to meet the African National Congress Youth League in Lusaka in 1985 and had their passports withdrawn by then president PW Botha.
He studied at Cambridge University before serving as a rapporteur at the Conference for a Democratic South Africa and entering regional politics.
Bester fits well into the mould of the post-1994 DP – bilingual but of Afrikaans origin, sporting a clean-cut and down-to-earth image, a pragmatist who emphasises security issues and building the Western Cape’s economy.
With signs of cracks in the New National Party’s bastion, Bester is piloting something of a shooting star. Polls and by-elections have shown support for the DP has increased among opposition voters.
This leaves the DP well placed to carve a niche for itself as the party which holds the balance of power between the ANC and the NNP in the Western Cape.
Bester has been plotting the DP’s election strategy in the province. This strategic thinking, as much as his party’s vision, animates the DP’s youthful leader whose approach to winning the key coloured vote resembles the “domino theory”. He argues that once best-informed voters switch sides, it is a matter of time before the rest follow.
Bester aims to make the DP the Western Cape’s largest party – a goal which does not seem a hopeless pipe dream. He argues that as cracks appear in the NNP, political realignment is taking place in the province and most voters from minority groups will flock to the party that seems best placed to represent their interests.
Clearly, Bester wants coloured voters to see the DP as an alternative political home and has to overcome the party’s label as an organisation of the white and the rich.
Perception as much as policy is key to winning voter support. The defections to the DP have given the party an image boost in the coloured community as well as organisational reach in areas such as the West Coast.
Bester says further defections are in the pipeline at council as well as regional level, but the party is wary of “peaking” too soon and has kept a few tricks up its sleeve for later this year.
His approach to racial differences in a region notorious for ethnic divisions is that differences should be acknowledged not ignored. “I am not prepared to speak on behalf of a community I do not come from. I will let members who are from those communities take the lead,” he said.
This means that the new recruits as well as organisers in areas such as Mitchell’s Plain and longstanding members such as former United Democratic Front patron Joe Marks are likely to be the face of the DP on the Cape Flats and in surrounding rural towns.
Bester makes no bones about the fact that the DP does not have a foothold in African areas and says he is not willing to have token organisers who then become “gatekeepers” to their communities.
The DP’s growing support in the Western Cape has led to speculation that should the party be in a position to hold the balance of power between the African National Congress and NNP, Bester would be able to demand premiership.
Bester is faintly embarrassed and says he doubts that it would be wise to be premier if his party was not in the majority.
There is little doubt, however, that he would demand senior portfolios in the provincial cabinet where he serves as MEC for business promotion and tourism.
While Bester is committed to keeping the ANC from power, he does not support opposition to central government at any cost and cites the Western Cape’s security problems as an example of an issue where all parties need to co- operate.
In government his key concerns would be to prioritise and plan. He says he would direct resources to key areas such as security, education and basic social services rather than try to spread resources evenly between a myriad of departments and issues.
While critics charge that the DP has lost its liberal roots as it becomes an ever wider “broad church”, Bester denies the party has lurched to the right.
He says such claims are usually based on the party accommodating politicians such as Tertius Delport, rather than policy shifts. He cites the death penalty as a case in point, where despite the vote- catching potential of a pro-capital punishment stance, the DP has maintained it is a matter of individual conscience.
“The policies, values and positions are much the same as 1989 when I stood for the party the first time.”
@SAA steers clear of Angolan skies
David Shapshak
South African Airways (SAA) has diverted flights over Angola following the downing of two United Nations airplanes, but Air Namibia has not altered its flight paths.
SAA representative Leon Els confirmed that the national carrier has modified its flight paths to avoid hot spots. “There has been change in the routing, so that we keep out of the danger areas in the interest of the passengers,” he said.
This follows an announcement last week by the UN that there were no survivors from two of its chartered Hercules C- 130 planes that were downed on December 26 and January 2, killing 14 and nine people respectively. South African pilot John Wilkinson died in the first crash and his son, Hilton, was killed in the second while searching for his father.
This week, at least 22 people were killed when their plane caught fire just after take-off and crashed only metres from the large Asa-Branca market in the populous Cazenga district of Luanda. The cause of the fire was not known at the time of going to press.
Air Namibia representative Esau Mabako said from Windhoek that his airline had not “opted for any precautionary measures. The areas that we use are not endangered. We don’t fly to Huambo or over the conflict areas. It’s business as usual.”
However, a passenger who flew Air Namibia last week said the plane flew over the sea – at the time the pilot told the passengers they were passing the Cunene River in southern Angola – until they reached Luanda.
With much of central Angola in a state of war as Jonas Savimbi’s Unita rebels fight the government forces of Jos Eduardo dos Santos around the troubled central city of Huambo, Els says SAA introduced a “slight change in the routing purely in the interest of safety”.
Mabako maintains there was no danger to Air Namibia flights as they do not fly over conflict areas. “As soon as they get endangered something will be done about that and the flying public will be informed.”
Plane crashes over the war-torn country are becoming increasingly more commonplace.
AFP reports that last year there were five plane crashes, including the first UN plane, that killed 94 people. In all about 338 people have died in 11 accidents since June 1995.
In October, pilots, aircraft engineers and other airline officials lashed out at certain private airlines during a television debate, claiming these companies were taking spare parts from old aircraft grounded in Luanda to keep other planes supposedly airworthy.
Private charter pilots are among the few to venture into Angolan airspace, while relief agencies encounter major difficulties in getting food and medical aid to desperate people in dangerous parts of the country.