Mungo Soggot
The doyenne of South African liberalism, Helen Suzman, this week said ”good riddance” to the New National Party after its split from the Democratic Alliance.
Suzman, who opposed from the start the merger last year of the Democratic Party and the NNP to form the DA, says the brief marriage will have damaged the liberal cause in South Africa in the short term. But, she says, in the long term ”the need for a strong opposition will repair the damage that has been done”.
The veteran politician says she opposed the merger because it could only ”lead to conflict”.
She said: ”The NNP brought lots of baggage from apartheid days that harmed the DP. Unfortunately a lot of what I predicted has happened.”
Suzman expressed her amazement at the African National Congress’s moves now to strike its own ”unholy alliance” with the NNP, but said it was unlikely such uneasy bedfellows would last long together. ”I wish them a merry Christmas, which should be their first and last [together].”
She added: ”What is most amazing is the thought of the ANC tying up with the NNP and all its baggage. What short memories they must have of the [National Party’s] laws that so grievously affected their basic support.”
She said that, although the ANC leadership might have short memories, ”I doubt that this is the case among the masses who so hopefully voted for them in 1994 and to whom delivery of services has been so palpably lacking. I never thought the ANC could so easily abandon its principles.”
Suzman does not believe DA leader Tony Leon faces any challenge to his leadership of the party following the recent turmoil, saying he is the right man for the job. ”At present he is useful, despite his unpopularity.”
She says Leon is undoubtedly ”confrontational, but maybe that is exactly what is needed these days”.
She says that, despite her fears about the DP’s merger with the NNP, the party has not sacrificed any of its policies, which she believes are ”excellent”.
Suzman says the NNP tie-up was a mistake, among other reasons, because it ”jeopardised their [the DA’s] chances of attracting voters who are not white”.
Suzman endorses floor-crossing by elected public representatives ”in normal circumstances, but certainly not as a matter of expediency in the most shameless way”. The current limited floor-crossing proposal to allow ”the unholy alliance between the ANC and the NNP” is unacceptable, she added.
Suzman believes the DP should refrain from getting into any other alliances for the time being to give it time to ”lick its wounds”.
She fears the expediency and ”absolute abandonment” of principle that has characterised the extraordinary manoeuvrings in opposition circles over the past few weeks could further undermine South Africans’ opinion of Parliament and politicians. ”What a disappointment it has all been.”