Randfontein, a traditional Nationalist stronghold, was stormed by the Democratic Alliance in a recent by-election. Won’t the New National Party be blown away in this election outside the Western Cape?
All polls show the NNP will continue to be one of the four major political parties, but our main battle for the white vote will be outside the Western Cape, with the DA. Yes, the DA have made inroads; they’ve moved to the right and positioned themselves where the old National Party was. Our choice is: either fight on that turf or accept we are a new South African party. We’ve done the second, even if it means losing right-wing support to the DA.
Don’t recent by-elections in the Western Cape suggest you’ve shed support in that province too?
Nowhere in the world are local by-elections an indication of national elections. All reliable polls show the Western Cape will be a tough battle, but no one party will get an outright majority.
There’s an agreement between ourselves and the African National Congress to govern together, because in the Western Cape it’s the only formula for stability. [The] government will then represent coloureds, whites and blacks, the three large communities. Our first objective is for the NNP to be the strongest party. Secondly, the two parties in the coalition must have a decisive majority — as they do now — to stabilise [the] government.
Doesn’t the floor-crossing in the Parliament — where you lost a quarter of your MPs — suggest a lack of belief in your election prospects?
The members who left may have thought the DA could build a strong opposition alliance — it didn’t materialise, except for a vague agreement with Inkatha. Now they’ve come out low on the DA’s elections lists, and they’re disappointed and feel used. Some are talking to us to come back.
With one exception, the floor-crossers were members of the old PW Botha clique who survived internal election processes. Our new MPs have shown there was much better quality in the wings.
How have your traditional supporters taken your pact with the ANC?
Whites who really accept the new South Africa are with the NNP. An ironic development after 1994 is that the NNP has become the real rainbow party, while the party of liberalism has taken over the role of conservative complainers. It is impossible to become a new South African party and take with you all the old traditional NP support. All opposition parties are single-digit parties; the ANC has almost 70% of the vote. With the percentage points we have, we must do the best for our supporters. The only way is to enter a partnership with the party of the black majority.
The electorate has two choices — the NNP, which says the only way to avoid another Zimbabwe is for responsible leaders to work together and strengthen the centre, or a party that says ”fight back” and distance yourselves as far as possible from the ANC. What the DA proposes will end in the same tears and alienation as the Ian Smith option. They can shout as loud as they want, but they are alienating minority communities from the mainstream.
They are born to be in opposition; we are born problem-solvers and team players. I question the DA’s commitment to South Africa. Many of its leaders will not be here in 10 or 15 years’ time. They don’t accept that you can only live in South Africa if you respect black South Africans and build a party on respect.
You don’t seem to have a distinct policy platform from the ANC’s. Why should anyone vote for you rather than them?
We do have a strong policy platform, and this will be further outlined at our manifesto launch. We are much tougher than the ANC on crime; we strongly believe in bringing back the death penalty. Although we broadly support the ANC’s responsible free market policy, there are important differences with regard to the labour market. In foreign policy there are a number of differences, Zimbabwe being one. Anyone who can read should be able to understand the differences.
But it’s true the ANC and NNP have moved to the centre over the past 10 years — the ANC has become much less socialist, the NNP much more sensitive to poverty and other issues important to disadvantaged communities.
There’s resistance in the ruling alliance in the Western Cape to giving you a second term as premier. Do you expect to keep the position?
We’ve brought much-needed stability to the Western Cape — it’s best for the province to have an NNP premier. There may be opposition in ANC ranks, but I don’t want to involve myself in internal ANC matters.
Up till now we’ve succeeded in resolving every difficult issue with a great deal of wisdom, and I’ve no doubt we will deal with the premiership in the same way. In all my negotiations with the ANC, jobs have been the last issue.
Everyone tainted with political sleaze in the Western Cape — including Peter Marais, Gerald Morkel, Leon Markowitz and David Malatsi — is a former or serving Nat. Isn’t the NNP synonymous with pork barrel politics in that province?
That’s not true. The DA finance committee, which worked with [Jurgen] Harksen, consisted of former Democratic Party members. Tony Leon attended that fundraising lunch with Harksen.
Malatsi yes. But I dealt with it quite differently; he was suspended and fired. No parties are immune to that sort of thing. What counts is how you deal with it.
The ANC has failed to keep its pledge of NNP participation at all levels of government. When does your party expect to get a national Cabinet post?
We negotiated that agreement mid-term, when there was a national Cabinet and provincial cabinets all over the country. We said it was a long-term agreement. When we’re ready to implement that element of it, we’ll do so.
We’d like to have seen some elements implemented earlier, but in the same way that we requested the ANC to be patient on some issues, we respect the fact that they were hamstrung by certain practical realities. These included cabinets already being in place.
As deputy DA leader you attacked President Thabo Mbeki for being ”obsessed with race”. Is he still race-obsessed?
I criticised him quite severely for his ”two nations” speech, and I still believe that was a mistake. But this State of the Nation speech allowed him to emerge much more as a one-nation president. He concentrated so much on race in the first years of his presidency; perhaps it was an internal strategy to consolidate his position in the ANC. I welcome the fact that he has moved away from that.
In 2001 Pik Botha called for the NNP to be allowed to die off. Isn’t it just your ambition, and that of a few other career politicians, that is keeping it alive?
The voters are more intelligent than to vote for the political ambitions of any individual; they vote for a cause. The NNP has shown that South Africa needs a party that brings people together.