Roelf Meyer, former National Party (NP) Cabinet minister and key negotiator in South Africa’s transition to democracy, has applied for membership of the African National Congress.
Confirming this on Thursday, he was, however, at pains to emphasise that he had no intention of re-entering active politics.
”The reality is, I voted for the ANC in 2004, and I made it public at that time [that] I was voting for the ANC,” he said.
”In the meantime, I thought I’m politically homeless, and I rather want to associate myself on a direct basis and become a member of the ANC.”
He has expressed his intention to Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa and his application is being processed. Meyer said he left politics at the beginning of 2000, and became ”inactive”.
”I want to emphasise, my joining the ANC doesn’t mean I want to become active again,” he said. ”It’s just the appropriate thing for me to do. I have no political ambition.”
Asked why he had chosen the ANC as a political home, he said: ”I think the ANC’s policies are those that I can support best in South Africa.
”I think that the government has proved what they are doing is in the interests of South Africans.”
Meyer (59) served under the then-NP government in Cabinet portfolios that included defence, communication and constitutional affairs.
He was the government’s chief negotiator in the run-up to the 1994 democratic transition.
Sidelined by conservatives in the NP, Meyer left the party and quit Parliament.
In 1997 he joined with Bantu Holomisa to form the United Democratic Movement, from which he later resigned.
The NP’s successor, the New National Party, has since dissolved and its senior members have joined the ANC.
Meyer currently has business interests in the timber industry, and also does consultancy work. — Sapa