Pretoria | Saturday
THE New National Party (NNP) announced on Friday night that it is to quit the Democratic Alliance (DA), a move that will leave the Democratic Party isolated in the Western Cape.
”The NNP suspends its participation in the DA with a view to shortly withdraw from the alliance,” NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk told reporters after a NNP federal council meeting in Pretoria.
This announcement came just hours after the African National Congress (ANC) said it wanted to change the national Constitution to allow MPs, provincial legislators and local councillors to move from one party to another without losing their seats.
In a statement on Friday, ANC national chairman Mosiuoa Lekota — also Minister of Defence — said: ”the ANC has resolved to effect legislation so as to make it possible in the short term for elected representatives at national, provincial and local spheres of government to realign their political loyalties without forfeiting their seats. This is to be implemented starting in the coming week.”
This becomes significant in the light of the NNP’s decision to break the alliance and the resolution passed by the NNP’s federal council specifically mentions ”the establishment of co-operative governance in all three spheres of government.”
A senior member of the NNP in the Western Cape — speaking on condition of anonymity — told Sapa the party would form a coalition government with the ANC in the Western Cape.
He said he knew of 13 Cape Town unicity councillors elected under the DA banner who would defect to the ANC.
Van Schalkwyk, announcing the split, said the NNP intended to fundamentally transform itself ”into a party for the new South Africa”.
”The DA is on the road to nowhere, and we don’t want to go nowhere. We believe in the future of the new South Africa, unlike the Democratic Party. We don’t get perverse pleasure to see the country failing.”
The split came after two weeks of repeated public clashes between Van Schalkwyk and DA leader Tony Leon over the future of axed Cape Town mayor Peter Marais.
Van Schalkwyk said the NNP had already held informal talks with other parties, but did not name them.
The future of the Western Cape government, a coalition between the DP and the NNP, would depend on the outcome of these discussions.
Leon reacted with contempt when he heard of the New National Party’s decision.
”This must surely be the greatest and most shameful capitulation in South African political history,” he said in a statement.
”Frankly, the behaviour of the NNP leadership is contemptible.
”(NNP leader) Marthinus van Schalkwyk has betrayed everything for which he purports to stand. Two-and-a-half million opposition voters have been sacrificed on the altar of his power lust.”
He said the ANC’s announcement on the changing of legislation seemed to have been timed to coincide with the decision by the NNP.
”This suggests that the NNP has already struck some kind of deal with the ANC. Again, Mr Van Schalkwyk seems to have misled me, the DA and the public.”
Marais said the NNP’s decision was ”unexpected”.
However, he said ”I am fully in support of the decision taken, I am sorry I wasn’t there.”
Marais was expelled from the DA last week after turning down a request from the party’s national management committee to hand in his mayoral chain.
He was asked to quit because former judge Willem Heath found he misled the public over support for his abortive street renaming plan.
The NNP’s move received mixed reaction from South African political parties.
Leader of the Federal Alliance — the third party in the Democratic Alliance — Dr Louis Luyt said the alliance’s supporters should not be ”hoodwinked” into childish and ill-considered action.
He said that allowing personal ambitions ”to undermine the very fabric of the success of the DA” was tantamount to treason to the electorate who worked so hard to achieve success.
”There is not a single problem that cannot be resolved within the confines of the party’s structures, provided the will is there and is not driven by some ulterior motive,” Luyt said.
ANC representative Smuts Ngonyama said: ”That alliance was a marriage made in hell and it was bound to fall apart because it was an alliance of hatred against the ANC and the majority black government.
”This is positive in that it will present an opportunity for the creation of a properly non-racial society and non-racial political formations.”
ANC Western Cape leader Ebrahim Rasool said the NNP’s decision was not unexpected and was a reflection of the ”really bad leadership of DA leader Tony Leon”.
Asked about the possibility of an alliance between the DA and the ANC in the Western Cape Rasool said: ”There has to be a coalition in the Western Cape — no single party has more than 50% (of the seats). As we have said before, the ANC would have to take up responsibility to ensure ongoing governance.”
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) representative Musa Zondi said he did not rule out some form of political co-operation between the IFP and the NNP, saying ”our doors are open”.
He said the IFP initially opted not to join the DA.
”But we wouldn’t write anybody off and would be open-minded about discussing any future possibilities,” Zondi said.
The Pan Africanist Congress said it was surprised by the NNP’s move over the ”small” Peter Marais issue.
The party’s deputy president Motsoko Pheko said the move was surprising, considering what the DA could have achieved.
Asked, tongue-in-cheek, whether the PAC would approach the NNP to form a new political alliance, Pheko said: ”No thanks, I don’t think that is our cup of tea.”
Freedom Front (FF) leader Dr Pieter Mulder said the suspension would lead to a realignment in South African politics.
He said the decision might mean that true alliances where political parties went in as equal partners would come to an end.
”The FF is ready for this,” Mulder said.
The DA was formed in June 2000 to contest the local government elections of that year. – Sapa