South Africa’s official opposition leader, Tony Leon, says that Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats and Pieter Mulder’s Freedom Front Plus are the handmaidens of one-party dominance by the African National Congress.
In his weekly internet newsletter, South Africa Today, the centre-right Democratic Alliance leader accused the two opposition parties of existing only through ”cannibalising the opposition”.
”At every turn, they try to split opposition voters into tiny blocs. They are rushing to fill the roles that the New National Party played in its last year — the spoiler, the divider, the handmaiden of one-party dominance.”
Noting that his party now has 1 024 councillors — having picked up 32 councillors, 29 from the NNP — Leon said this week’s floor-crossing of municipal councillors will probably be the last ”major” floor-crossing activity.
The defection period of 2002 and the current one — which lasts until September 15 — ”resulted from the wild flailings of the NNP in its death throes”.
”Future floor-crossing windows will open but the number of councillors who defect is likely to be relatively small compared to the mass migrations of recent years,” he said.
”Even so, floor-crossing has shaken public confidence in our young democracy. An examination of the list of NNP councillors who joined the ANC reveals that many, if not most of them, hold well-remunerated positions within their municipalities, which they depend on the ANC to maintain,” he charged.
He said the FF+ and the ID offer South Africans ”the most illusory kind of independence”.
”The FF+ wants to occupy the desert wilderness; the ID seems to live in a political wilderness. Neither has much to say about the important issues of the day.
”The only thing that the ANC respects is countervailing power. The only way to build that countervailing power is to strengthen the opposition. And the only opposition that exists across the nation, at every level of government, is the DA.”
The ID made 18 gains during the crossover period — mainly from the NNP — and the FF+ raised its number of councillors to 20, including 10 defectors this week.
FF+ spokesperson Leon Louw said: ”We have beaten the DA in three recent by-elections, so we are still role players and if we keep on winning by-elections against the DA, how can we be splitting the vote?”
ID chief of staff Brent Meersman was not available for comment. — I-Net Bridge