The New National Party’s decision to amalgamate with the African National Congress is an embarrassment for everyone who has ever been associated with the party, said Pieter Mulder, leader of minority party the Freedom Front Plus.
”Not one of the founding members of the National Party in 1914 or any of the party’s previous leaders could have predicted that the party would be destroyed in such a tragic and dishonourable way by being swallowed up by the ANC,” he said in a statement late on Saturday night.
He suggested that NNP members of Parliament cross over to his party, rather than the African National Congress when the floor-crossing period starts in September.
”The FF+ invites them [the NNP councilors] to retain some of their political integrity and cross over to the Freedom Front instead of the ANC,” Mulder said.
Following the announcement on Saturday that the NNP would fight all future elections under the banner of the ANC, NNP leader and Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk encouraged NNP members of Parliament to cross over to the ANC, saying they would retain the positions they hold if they did so.
He himself would join the ANC ”within a few weeks,” he said.
The ruling party’s seats in the National Assembly will rise to 286 if all seven of the NNP’s MP’s join the ANC.
Mulder said no-one who believed in democracy would be able to understand how it could be in South Africa’s interest to make the ANC even stronger than its 70% election victory.
He reiterated the FF+’s standpoint that ”the answer lies in constructive opposition”.
He said the NP after 90 years had finally reached the end of the road, and that soon all signs of the NNP would be wiped out.
Democratic Alliance MP Helen Zille also said the latest NNP/ANC agreement was the final nail in the NNP’s coffin.
She said van Schalkwyk had destroyed his party and abandoned his voters in return for a cabinet position.
”This agreement is the price he has to pay and has got nothing to do with political principle.”
The Christian Democratic Party’s (CDP) Federal Leader Rudi du Plooy said he was not surprised at the NNP’s declaration that it would cross the floor to the ANC.
”The NNP has failed dismally in its attempts to regain its former glory days when it was still the NP. The uncertainty that surrounded the NNP was stretched to the limit and voters turned out in vain to try and resuscitate this dying party.” – Sapa