Unbowed New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Thursday vowed to continue advocating its reconciliation message as espoused in the coalition agreement with the ruling party.
He would do this even though it might not be popular among the electorate.
Said Van Schalkwyk at a media briefing in Cape Town as preliminary election results showed an erosion of the NNP’s popularity: ”An analysis of the election … [shows it was] very close to a racial census.”
Van Schalkwyk said it remains a ”huge challenge” to break down this racial census, reaffirming his personal and party’s position that cooperation with the African National Congress is the best solution to the challenges facing South Africa.
”[It is] not the most popular message in the non-ANC segment of the political landscape,” he said.
According to Van Schalkwyk some opposition parties benefitted from an ”anti-black, anti-ANC” message while the NNP had decided it was no use fighting yesterday’s battles.
He said the truth of the elections since 1994 was that the non-ANC part of the electorate had continued to shrink, with no non-ANC parties able to make a breakthrough among the so-called black vote.
Van Schalkwyk felt that one of the reasons why the NNP had fared poorly in its traditional stronghold in coloured areas was that these communities might not have agreed with his party’s coalition with the ANC.
”[It is] not what we would have liked it to be,” he said of the low voter turnout in these areas.
He felt opposition parties had preyed on the ”fear and mistrust” of the ANC in these communities.
Turning to his political future within the coalition and a mooted Cabinet position, Van Schalkwyk said there had never been ”any discussion” between the ANC and NNP for the past few years about this.
”No undertaking [has been] given to any person to any position,” he said, adding that it would have been ”immoral” to make any behind-the-door deals on such positions.
He said a meeting between the parties to discuss the issue will take place after the final results were known.
Asked about the Democratic Alliance’s call for him to resign as ”leader of his failed party”, Van Schalkwyk said if that principle applied then DA leader Tony Leon also had to resign.
On Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats, Van Schalkwyk said it was ”healthy” for the democratic process, saying De Lille was ”adding spice to the elections” much like Roelf Meyer and Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement did during the 1999 election.
However, Van Schalkwyk said in reality the ID has no policy programme nor platform and is ”not sustainable” in the long run.
Meanwhile, the former Western Cape provincial minister of housing and the number two on the NNPs’ national list, Cecil Herandien, said the NNP was in a similar position in 1943 when it had just eight MPs.
”… But five years later it was the governing party,” an upbeat Herandien said.
He said the planning for the next elections started on Thursday, with the party now only able to rise up after ”falling to the ground”. — Sapa
Special Report: Elections 2004