Marianne Merten
The banner at the New National Party’s final Western Cape provincial congress proclaimed: “NNP + DP = DA”. The elderly Cape Flats woman in the observer seats who enthusiastically waved her NNP scarf may not see things the same way.
Coloured resentment of the NNP’s partner in the Democratic Alliance, the Democratic Party, and rivalry between the parties in the Western Cape resurfaced at this week’s conference, despite NNP leaders stated commitment to a united opposition.
The conference also made crystal-clear the obstacles facing DP leaders who want to bring Cape Town unicity mayor Pieter Marais to heel.
Marais, on forced leave after the unicity street-renaming fiasco, was warmly applauded when he emceed part of the congress proceedings. His popularity clearly not dented, he was re-elected an NNP’s deputy party chairperson.
Marais’s position was further strengthened last week when Western Cape MEC for Local Government Pierre Uys cancelled a disciplinary inquiry under former Cape judge-president Edwin King. This followed a Cape High Court ruling that disciplinary matters should be handled by municipal authorities.
Delegates at the conference complained of a divisive “cabal of DP members” wanting to dominate the DA, and voiced fears about the marginalisation of the “bruin broers en susters [brown brothers and sisters]”.
NNP leaders insisted the alliance was the “right choice in the politics of the new South Africa”. But party chief and deputy DA leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk also issued a veiled caution to the DP. “In the Western Cape, where we are the majority, the DA will look a lot like we look like now,” he said. “We must start acting like a majority. A minority must never be so arrogant as to act as a majority.”
Much was made of “the mosaic of colour” at the congress coloured communities in the Western Cape constitute around 60% of the electorate and were crucial in delivering Cape Town to the DA in last year’s municipal elections.
A handful of black followers sat in the observer seats, despite DA slogans proclaiming itself as a “party for all the people”.
There was plenty of reassurance for coloured communities, however, amid talk of making the DA a “volksparty” (people’s party). “The NNP lived in people’s hearts, and I ask you transfer that to the DA. In the Western Cape we brought together white and brown people. The ties between them may never be broken,” said Van Schalkwyk.
In a sentimental mood, re-elected chairperson and Western Cape Premier Gerald Morkel recounted the NP’s “path of evolution” and “history of service”, with the qualification that it was “perhaps not in service of all the people at all times”.
Listing the 1948 Nat election victory and the 1984 establishment of the tricameral parliament among the party’s successes, Morkel also named “mistakes like apartheid and the Group Areas Act”, but said he did not want to dwell on such negative aspects.
He recalled the days when supporters, including himself, were called “boer se hoer [boer’s whore]” and insisted coloured supporters had made the party their own. “We have changed this party so much that it has become our party; we fell in love with it.”
Now the challenge was to ensure a similar success for the DA, against the background of continued fierce NNP loyalties on the Cape Flats.
Van Schalkwyk later told the Mail & Guardian that the lack of grassroots recognition of the DA was “a huge problem”. Not enough had been done at that level because the party had been a “top down” formation.
But he was confident this would be resolved with the soon-to-start formation of new DA branches on the basis of the new municipal boundaries. “We will make the DA work,” he said.
The full merger of the NNP and DP will take place only in 2004 ahead of the national election as, in terms of the Constitution, MPs cannot join another party without losing their parliamentary seats. The party constitution, the future allocation of parliamentary seats and membership regulations are still being negotiated.
Tensions within the DA surfaced shortly after its formation in June last year. Divisions also highlighted by leaked plans to sideline Van Schalkwyk, the role of former DP spin doctor Ryan Coetzee and DA leader Tony Leon’s crackdown on Marais, after the controversial street-renaming debacle.
Senior officials on both sides say the tensions are the natural result of merging two different political cultures, adding that they are nowhere near as deep as the rifts within the African National Congress-led tripartite alliance or the disarray of several ANC provincial structures.
Marais may be insignificant on the national political scene, but he has a large network of personal loyalties in the Western Cape on which he can draw for support. His appeal to Cape Flats voters remains undeniable.
Marais’ street-fighting political acumen remains intact. It was demonstrated at the conference when he asked for the withdrawal of a motion to put him back in office the next day.
That motion was supported by a delegate representing a hinterland constituency who admitted he spoke up because “Pieter and I go back a long way”.
Accompanied by his personal pastor Theo Noble, Marais went into a huddle with delegates outside the congress venue and was swamped by wellwishers after his re-election as a deputy party chairperson.