The New National Party will disband at midnight after the results of the upcoming local government elections are declared, the party’s federal council resolved on Saturday.
At the council’s last meeting, 88 members voted in favour of the NNP disbanding, while two opposed it. Three abstained.
”I think the vote was absolutely conclusive. Only two opposing,” NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk told a press conference in Kempton Park.
The NNP will remain registered with the Independent Electoral Commission until it is disbanded.
It is natural that not all members will support the NNP’s decision to disband. It is their right, Van Schalkwyk said.
”It would have been very strange indeed if 100% of the people agree to do anything in any party. Two opposing votes is quite clearly a resounding majority,” he said.
Once the local poll results are declared, the NNP, the National Party’s successor, will cease to exist, ending the party’s 91-year career. The NP was formed in 1914.
In a bid to reform the party, the NNP and the Democratic Party formed the Democratic Alliance in 2000. But Van Schalkwyk pulled out of the DA late in 2002 and joined the African National Congress, a party the Nationalists once loathed.
After the NNP’s withdrawal from the DA, it came to light that the NNP owed Absa R5,2-million.
That issue, however, has been settled, NNP secretary general Daryl Swanepoel said. But he declined to explain whether the money was repaid to Absa.
”The matter has been settled. The whole issue has been concluded,” he said, adding that details are confidential.
Pressed to clarify, Swanepoel said: ”Absa and the NNP are satisfied that the matter has been dealt with.”
At Saturday’s meeting, Van Schalkwyk said he has not forgiven himself for taking the NNP into the DA.
Eight of the NNP’s nine MPs will join the ANC in September.
NNP MP Stanley Simmons attended Saturday’s meeting, but did not vote. He said he was undecided about his next move.
Simmons will lose his seat after the NNP’s final demise if he does not belong to a party, Swanepoel said.
During a two-hour discussion about the NNP’s decision, a member who opposed the moved was laughed at, forcing Van Schalkwyk to intervene.
”Colleagues, this member has a right to speak,” he said, while some delegates looked intensely at their cellphones and others chatted among themselves.
Van Schalkwyk said some members of the NNP will be considered for the ANC’s election list, but that is not the reason for joining the ANC.
Many party members are uncertain what to do in future, but NNP leaders will try to convince them to join the ANC, Van Schalkwyk said. — Sapa