South Africa’s second democratic election saw the virtual extinction of the party that invented apartheid, writes Howard Barrell
The African National Congress scored an emphatic victory at the polls this week, soaring beyond the two-thirds majority threshold in an election widely acclaimed by international observers.
And in one of the most remarkable recoveries in modern South African politics, the Democratic Party fought back from obscurity to seize the mantle of official opposition in the National Assembly. The DP was set to gain well in excess of 25 seats.
In two provinces, the races to form governments were neck-and-neck affairs between the ANC and its main rivals – the Inkatha Freedom Party in KwaZulu-Natal and the New National Party in the Western Cape. But by late Thursday, the ANC was showing signs of pulling ahead in both provinces.
Elsewhere, the ANC scored decisive victories – notably in the Northern Cape, where the NNP had boasted a strong following.
Computer problems at the election centre in Pretoria delayed the counting of votes from about midday onwards on Thursday. By late afternoon only about 60% of votes were available.
ANC president, and South Africa’s president-in-waiting, Thabo Mbeki, said his party had scored an “unequivocal victory”.
The other main feature of South Africa’s second democratic election was the virtual extinction of the offspring of the party that invented apartheid and ruled South Africa for 46 years – the National Party.
The DP vaporised the NNP’s support base in Gauteng, mopping up a string of once safe NNP seats in some of the most conservative parts of South Africa’s wealthiest province.
The NNP’s Gauteng leader, Johan Killian, conceded the DP had trounced his party in once conservative strongholds. “They [the DP] have been clobbering us where the Conservative Party used to clobber us,” he said.
Both the NNP and the DP said the ANC vote in Gauteng had been buoyed by the parachuting in of former trade union leader Mbhazima Shilowa as premier candidate in the province.
The DP’s leader in the province, Peter Leon, said the ANC would not have done as well had it retained controversial Mathole Motshekga as premier.
Tony Leon, national leader of the DP and the man set to take over as official leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, was in triumphant mood when he visited the Pretoria election centre on Thursday.
“We’ve overtaken the Nats!” he jeered as he grasped outstretched hands from well-wishers, among them Lord David Steele, a pre-eminent British liberal and election observer.
Leon plans a series of meetings in coming days to set out a strategy to oppose the ANC and bring together opposition parties in a form of anti-ANC co-operation in Parliament.
Party officials are talking of a “repositioning of the party” to equip it to consolidate its increased support at this election among the coloured and Indian communities and to extend its reach into the black community.
The one blot on the DP’s landscape late yesterday came from the IFP’s vote, which was creeping dangerously upwards towards the DP’s figure, seeming to endanger the DP’s grasp on the position of official opposition. Leon’s aides were privately anxious about this unexpected development.
One of the parties Leon is eying as a possible alliance partner, the United Democratic Movement, on Thursday ruled out any official ties with any other opposition parties.
NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, however, left the door open for cooperation with the DP, saying his party was willing to “strategically co-operate with other opposition parties, even where our approach differs”.
Van Schalkwyk said the NNP had “paid the price for inclusivity” and he implicitly accused the DP of having plundered its traditional support base by moving to the right.
Sheila Camerer, parliamentary leader of the NNP, was particularly blunt about her party’s performance. “It’s a very bad day for us,” she said.
Freedom Front leader Constand Viljoen, whose party’s share of the vote dipped dangerously, spurned Leon’s idea of a “Codesa of the opposition”, saying he feared such a public affair would merely lead to “grandstanding by political leaders”.
He favoured quiet meetings between opposition party leaders aimed at developing discreet, limited co-operation between parties on a piecemeal basis around specific issues.
In the Eastern Cape, the ANC beat off the challenge of Bantu Holomisa’s UDM, despite the former ANC firebrand’s loyal support in the former Transkei homeland. But the UDM managed to secure the position of official opposition in the province and was set to gain nine seats in the National Assembly.
In the Free State, the ANC was edging towards an 80% majority, with the DP trailing behind it, with less than 8%, as the likely official opposition in the province.
In Mpumalanga, the ANC topped 80%, with the DP again lined up to become the official, if tiny, opposition in this ANC stronghold. The ANC pulled off this decisive victory despite the recent firing of Mathews Phosa, its popular former premier.
The ANC scored its most overwhelming landslide in the Northern Province, with nearly 85% of the vote by late Thursday afternoon. Yet again, the ANC will face the DP across the provincial chamber.
The surprise of the North-West contest was the strong showing by former homeland leader Lucas Mangope.
Dr Brigalia Bam, chair of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), expressed her relief at the smooth running of the poll, which saw an extraordinarily high voter turnout – in some regions well above 80%.
The success of the poll was particularly sweet for her and her IEC colleagues because of the recent controversial departure of her predecessor, Judge Johann Kriegler.
The two-thirds majority has been identified by both local opposition parties and the international investment community as the key issue in the poll. In response, Mbeki has sought to dispel fears that his party is bent on changing the Constitution.
Bishop Stanley Mogoba, Pan Africanist Congress president, whose party’s support was nearly halved, announced his intention to step down late on Thursday.
But Van Schalkwyk, whose party suffered even greater punishment at the polls, brushed off suggestions that he might step down and that senior members of his party, who had spoken to the Mail & Guardian, were deeply dissatisfied with his helmsmanship. “I’ve not met those people,” he said of his critics in the party at a press conference in Pretoria where he claimed that he was in full control of the NNP.
Former president and NP leader FW de Klerk said his party’s performance had been “a big disappointment and a setback for non- racial politics”.