“I’m a farmer. I’ll be able to put food on the table,” says New National Party Free State leader Inus Aucamp, who lost his job in the provincial legislature after the election.
The NNP was wiped off the national political landscape, except in the Western Cape (where it received 10,8% of the vote) and Northern Cape (7,52%). Its national support slumped to 1,65%.
KwaZulu-Natal NNP veteran Renier Schoeman, serving his last days as deputy health minister, is another casualty of the disastrous NNP showing on April 14. “I’m going to have a lot of time on my hands. For the first time in 19 years I’m not an MP,” says Schoeman.
Mpumalanga NNP leader Chris MacPherson, also out of the provincial legislature, is biting the bullet at least until September’s second round of floor-crossing. After earning his salary for 21 years in politics, he says, “I have to give something back.”
While 22 NNP provincial ministers and 13 MPs are brushing up their CVs to start seeking jobs outside public political life, the NNP itself will be hard hit by its dismal election showing.
It is set to lose tens of thousands of rands in funding each month, allocated to MPs and provincial ministers under the 1997 Public Funding of Represented Political Parties Act. In addition, the constituency allowance paid by Parliament so its representatives can maintain contact with voters will also be slashed.
In the 2002/03 financial year the NNP’s then 28 MPs entitled the party to just more than R4,8-million, with another R1,2-million for its provincial public representatives.
Now its seven MPs will receive an allocation similar to the R730 900 the African Christian Democratic Party received for its six MPs from the Represented Political Parties Fund in 2002/03.
More than R500 000 will also be lost as the number of NNP MPLs is reduced to seven, from the 29 the party had after last year’s floor-crossing round which also cost it eight MPs.
Such drastic cuts to the party coffers come at a time when the NNP can ill-afford it.
As several companies made political donations ahead of elections, Absa Bank reportedly used its allocation to the NNP to reduce its R6-million debt dating back to the 1999 poll, according the Business Day.
When asked about its financial affairs, NNP secretary general Daryl Swanepoel stonily said: “We don’t discuss the party’s finances in public. We never have and we never will.”
But, for now, the party is putting on a brave face. For now most NNP offices remain open, provincial party officials insist, but there is no doubt belts must be tightened. An evaluation of office space and support staff is under way in the provinces. “If we run a tight ship, we can manage it,” says a senior national official.
The Gauteng NNP counts itself lucky. Its main office is debt-free and arrangements have already been made to find new jobs for its provincial legislature staff.
“We will scale down, but we will not disband,” says NNP Gauteng leader Johan Killian, who alongside his wife Juli and one other have lost their jobs.
Similarly, NNP support staff in the Northern Cape legislature are being found new employment, even with other political parties.
Deputy Minister of Correctional Services PW Saaiman is set to return there to take up one of the two seats remaining from the party’s eight. “I was elected to the provincial legislature. I can’t say more than that,” he says.
In the Western Cape the mood was not much more upbeat. Here the NNP maintained a profile, albeit a much reduced one, losing five of its 10 seats.
“We are busy reorganising. That’s all I can say at this stage,” says NNP provincial financial chairperson Hennie Smit. “The NNP, we manage things and we will do it again.”
But it has become clear that all of the NNP’s seven parliamentarians come from the Western Cape, including NNP leader and outgoing premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk and provincial education minister Andre Gaum. Returning MPs include Cecil Herandien, Francois Beukman and Carol Johnson, the only woman representative.
Among those who did not make it are veteran MP Boy Geldenhuys, one of the five South African representatives to the Pan African Parliament, and Western Cape deputy NNP leader Martha Olckers who, according to speculation, may become ambassador to a European country.