The Democratic Alliance on Saturday countered an earlier attack by the New National Party leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, and called his party a ”Maltese poodle” begging for scraps at the African National Congress’s table.
”Van Schalkwyk simply can’t stand the fact that the NNP is shrinking and the DA is growing,” said DA spokesperson Douglas Gibson in a statement, adding that Van Schalkwyk is desperate and that his attack on the DA will not help.
He also said: ”It is Van Schalkwyk himself who is the threat to opposition politics and multiparty democracy.”
Gibson said Van Schalkwyk is not credible with the voters and has turned his back on the mandate he got from them ”in exchange for a few perks and positions”.
Earlier in the day Van Schalkwyk urged white people not to vote for the DA and its attacked party leader, Tony Leon.
According to the text of a prepared speech for an election rally in Midrand, Van Schalkwyk called Leon ”the single biggest threat to the interests of white South Africans”, saying he simulates former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith.
”Instead of creating a future for white South Africans, he is destroying any chance for white South Africans to be part of any future government or to be taken seriously,” Van Schalkwyk said.
He said the DA has no experience in the government and comes with ”elaborate and unaffordable plans” it will not be able to deliver in the government.
”It is short-term, opportunistic politics, which seeks to sideline white voters into a parliamentary volkstaat called the DA.”
”Had today’s leaders of the DA been in positions of power in 1990 it is likely that the New South Africa would never have been born,” Van Schalkwyk said.
He added that the DA will be the loser in the upcoming elections because the party’s senior leaders see what is bad for the country as a source of strength and future growth for the DA. — Sapa
Special Report: Elections 2004