By Angela Quintal
Former president FW de Klerk has quit the party he once led, saying that he does not support the New National Party's political suicide and the call for its members to join the African National Congress.
De Klerk handed over the leadership of the party to protege Marthinus van Schalkwyk in 1997, and until Friday, had stood steadfastly behind his successor.
De Klerk publicly supported Van Schalkwyk and the NNP before the April election and actively campaigned on the party's behalf on the basis of closer co-operation with the ANC.
| 'I am not considering joining the ANC' |
De Klerk, who returned from an overseas trip, said on Friday he remained convinced that the concept of political co-operation, within a consensus-directed model, would be in the best interests of South Africa and its people.
It was for this reason that he had supported the NNP during the recent election.
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"I cannot, however, associate myself with the recent decisions of the NNP. In my opinion they mean that the NNP has abandoned its right to differ publicly with the ANC.
"This conclusion is best illustrated by the provision in the NNP's agreement with the ANC that those with double membership will fall under the over-arching discipline of the ANC."
De Klerk said these decisions taken by the NNP's federal council last weekend were clearly in conflict with the mandate the NNP had asked for during the recent election.
| 'We dare not play petty politics with these issues' |
As early as October 2001, he had made a public statement about a model for co-operation, which should be based on, among other things, genuine co-operation and not co-option.
The direction that the NNP had taken did not remotely comply with these requirements.
"I am, accordingly, withdrawing from the NNP. I am not considering joining the ANC and shall decide in due course for what party I shall vote."
De Klerk said Aids, unemployment, poverty and crime should be viewed as a national crisis.
"We dare not play petty politics with these issues. They can be solved only if we lift them out of the political arena and find ways of working together, despite our political differences."
The NNP's inevitable demise would leave a gap in South Africa's political spectrum.
"I hope there will be a realignment that will place our democracy on a sounder footing."
In his reaction, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said De Klerk had done the right thing.
"His decision as the previous leader of the NNP, and certainly as its best-known public figure in the national and international community, confirms precisely how unprincipled, unpatriotic and anti-democratic Marthinus van Schalkwyk's recent moves have been."
Writing in the online publication ANC Today on Friday, President Thabo Mbeki said the NNP had taken the "unavoidable decision that the time had come to lay the ghost of the party to rest".
"At the same time, it took another decision that was by no means inevitable, and that could not but be described as courageous and far-sighted.
"It recommended that its members and supporters join the ANC," Mbeki said.
In his online letter SA Today, Leon said the DA had killed off the NNP "because we provided a principled, non-racial alternative to the ANC".
He described the NNP as the "lackeys of one-party dominance".
"They used to speak about the ANC's misbehaviour, but now they sing its praises. They used to fight elections, but now they have turned and fled, leaving their voters behind."
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