The NNP has launched a township charm offensive, stressing similarities between blacks and Afrikaners
Jaspreet Kindra
“They move from one white man to another!” remarked a black journalist in disgust as he watched former Democratic Alliance supporters from three Vaal townships pledge support for the relaunched New National Party in Evaton on Sunday afternoon.
The 100-odd black people gathered there felt differently. Phyllis Zulu, a former telephone operator, who has proudly tied the NNP colours of blue, green and yellow around her head as a turban, says the African National Congress has not delivered a better life She would like to work, but there is no work to be found.
“It is not that we are lazy, we want to work,” she says.
The streets were no safer and policing in the townships no better. “We can’t even think about leaving our homes after six,” Zulu says. Her neighbour was raped by three men two weeks ago and the police have yet to make inquiries. Zulu says she lost all her qualification certificates in a robbery.
She hopes that the NNP which, after hiving off from the DA aligned itself with the ANC will convince the ruling party to give opportunities to people like her.
The former Evaton co-ordinator for the DA, Nomsa Ndima, explains: “There’s no difference between the policies of the NNP and the ANC.” A former ANC member, she left the party for the NNP some years ago because she was disillusioned with internal power games. She has now chosen to revert to the Nats, as the DA “does not recognise the struggle against apartheid”.
The black Nats include the one-time general affairs minister in former deputy-president FW de Klerk’s office, John Mavuso, and Gauteng legislature member Vincent Thusi. Wearing African-print shirts, they mingle with white party top dogs.
NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk reminds the faithful gathered in a small church hall that they have poverty in common, as Afrikaners were once poor. To cheers, he says Afrikaners have done well for themselves, and now they want to show the African community how.
Gauteng MPL Julie Kilian, whose constituency comprises Evaton and Sebokeng, points to the gaping holes in the only road to the township and the fact that the housing project in the area has yet to take off, despite the approval of funds. “We, the Nats, were always good administrators, and this is where we want to help the ANC.”
Her husband, NNP leader in Gauteng Johan, sounds a note of racial reconcilation: “We don’t want another Zimbabwe here. The whites in that country lived in their own world cut off from the reality of the black population.We want the whites living in Sandton to know of the conditions that the black population lives in.”
Many whites are willing to pay to provide services in townships like Evaton, but they need to be assured that the money is being put to good use, Kilian adds.
His message is that the NNP wants to help the ANC deliver to black people.
How realistic this is, given the NNP’s sliding electoral fortunes and the enormously greater power of its new partner, remains to be seen.