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Observations on the South African Elections

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A publication of ihe African Studies Program of The Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies No. 73 • June 4, 1987 Observations on the South African Elections by Heribert Adam Of the 3 million white South Africans eligible to vote in officeholders and imagery. On the contrary, Afrikaner the May 6, 1987 election, 67.97 percent cast ballots. At nationalists are seen by the majority of English-speaking stake were 166 directly elected seats in the (white) whites as the most trustworthy guardians of security. House of Assembly of the country's tricameral English support for the NP during the 1983 referendum parliament, plus 12 additional members nominated or on the new constitution was an endorsement of reform indirectly elected in proportion to the parties' electoral and power sharing; the 1987 support of the NP, on the strength. The National Party (which has held power other hand, was motivated by concern over "law and since 1948) received 52.45 percent of the total votes order." cast and 133 seats (a gain of 6 seats), the Conservative In the past, Afrikaners supported the National Party Party 26.37 percent and 23 seats (a gain of 5), and the because it was perceived as an emotional, ethnic home. Herstigte Nasionale Party 3.14 percent (but lost its one This perception tended to generate a lifelong allegiance. parliamentary seat). Thus, the status quo and The NP's new constituency of fearful English-speakers ultra-rightist parties took about 82 percent of the vote. makes the party's support more volatile, more As for the parties to the "left" of the NP, the Progressive vulnerable to swings in the national mood, and more Federal Party received 14.1 percent of the vote and 20 dependent on efficient media manipulation. seats (a loss of 7 seats), the New Republic Party Another change dramatized in this election was that received 1.9 percent and 1 seat (a loss of 4), and three television has replaced the print media as the main independents received 1.3 percent and 1 seat. In sum, communications weapon of the government. With the South Africa's National Party has been voted in by shift from concern for morality to strategies for roughly five percent of the country's total population. maintaining control, television is the perfect manipula­ During the past few years, the white electorate has tive tool. The state-owned South African Broadcasting shifted in two contradictory ways: it moved to the left on Corporation (SABC) has excelled in its use of this new apartheid issues but to the right on security. These medium. It is ironical that the leadership of the shifts are not unrelated. The crumbling of certainty National Party resisted the introduction of television about traditional apartheid was a factor in bringing law until a decade ago, because of fears that it would and order issues to the fore. By cultivating (and also undermine Afrikaner morale. manufacturing) anxieties, the authorities lured doubting The right wing is difficult to categorize in class terms voters into their camp. By associating the PFP with the since ideological issues predominate. It is also African National Congress, terrorism, and anarchy, the noteworthy that the Conservative Party (founded under NP presented itself as the reliable guarantor of a basic the leadership of Dr. Andries Treurnicht following the human need. 1982 defection of 16 members of the NP parliamentary Although no official tally is yet available, it is widely caucus in protest against the new constitutional believed that, for the first time, the number of proposals) achieved its gains without backing from English-speaking whites voting for the National Party either the SABC or any newspaper. Its campaign style may have exceeded the number of Afrikaners. This new reflected very much the National Party of earlier times. constituency of conservative "English" whites and One can say that the CP represents substantial immigrants is not perceptibly disturbed by the almost sections of the Afrikaner lower middle class, of the exclusive Afrikaner character of the party in terms of urban and rural petty bourgeoisie, and of the employees Editor: Helen Kitchen, Director of African Studies • Research Associate: J. Coleman Kitchen, Jr. • Production/Circulation: Evelyn Barnes CSIS Africa Notes, Suite 400, 1800 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20006 • Telephone (202) 887-0219 • ISSN 0736-9506 2 ............................................... Changes in Composition of House of Assembly Total Seats NP CP PFP HNP NRP Independents Present Composition 178• 133 seats 23 seats 20 seats 0 seats 1 seat 1 seat (52.45% (26.37% (14.1% (3.14% (1.9% (1.3% of vote) of vote) of vote) of vote) of vote) of vote) Pre-Election Composition 178• 127 seats 18 seats 27 seats 1 seat 5 seats 0 seats a. Of the 178-seat total, 166 members are directly elected. Four additional members (one from each province) are nominated by the State President, and 8 are indirectly elected by the popularly elected membership in proportion to the various parties' electoral showing. of state enterprises. It absorbed what is left of the three wisely distanced themselves from overtures by the Afrikaner working class by virtually wiping out the rival PFP, which was still tainted with an English-anti­ HNP, and a right-wing white trade union leader (Arrie Afrikaner-capitalist image, even for Afrikaner Paulus) was elected on a CP ticket. While the National dissidents. In some ways, Worrall assumed the mantle Party has solidified its middle class support in both of intellectual savior in the vacuum left by the white ethnic groups, the CP' s strength still lies more in resignation of Frederik van Zyl Slabbert as leader of the rural areas and among the lower echelons of the civil PFP and from parliament in February 1986. The service. Among the police, there is considerable independents did very well, winning one seat and sympathy for the extraparliamentary fascist Afrikaner suffering close defeats for the other two. Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) led by Eugene The liberal English-language press badly over­ Terre'Blanche, which operates in loose alliance with the estimated its influence as well as the appeal of the CP. The CP's strong showing is particularly significant PFP-NRP alliance. By uncritically supporting the PFP in light of President P.W. Botha's sidetracking of and the independents to the hilt, the Cape Times, reform, a preemptive move which, together with the among others, lost credibility with both conservative declarations of emergencies, may have prevented an and left-wing readerships. The crude attempts to create even greater electoral shift to the ultra-right. a bandwagon effect for the PFP and the independents backfired. The English papers generally failed to give Miscalculations on the Left adequate coverage of the extraparliamentary opposition In terms of apartheid laws, the NP has moved into the as a new and separate force. Given the suspicion of realm that the Progressive Federal Party occupied in things English that still exists in some traditionalist the past. The previous ideological currency of the PFP Afrikaner quarters, more nuanced press coverage of - negotiations, reform, and power sharing - has been Worrall's candidacy might have helped him turn around taken over by the NP, while the CP now stands the 39 votes by which he lost the Helderberg seat in ideologically where the NP was five to 10 years ago. The Cape Province to Minister of Constitutional Develop­ PFP lost because it did not move farther to the left in ment and Planning Chris Hennis. response to this NP invasion but rather tried to compete with the NP on the same terrain. The Omnipresent ANC The PFP-NRP alliance miscalculated the predilections A major winner in the election was the banned African of traditional NRP supporters, of whom at least 75 National Congress, which participated like a silenced percent had already defected to the National Party phantom. Pretoria depicted the ANC as the major when the alliance was formed. Some NRP supporters threat, both to National Party rule and the nation, also still blamed the PFP for having destroyed the old thereby impeding attempts to create a credible middle United Party. Many voters on the left of the PFP ground. The increased presence of the ANC in South deserted the party for its decision to remain in the Africa now lies in its imposed absence. The more tricameral white/Coloured/Indian parliament (estab­ Pretoria criminalizes the movement, the more its lished under the terms of the new constitution symbolic appeal spreads. The election results represent implemented in 1984) and for watering down its human a setback for Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, who rights principles by virtue of its pact with the more publicly endorsed the PFP-NRP platform. conservative NRP. This abstention lost the PFP The regime failed to take advantage of the opportunity marginal seats in university towns such as Pieter­ to release Nelson Mandela (the life president of the maritzburg and Grahamstown. ANC, imprisoned for over two decades) and other Meanwhile, elements of the upwardly mobile detainees at the very moment of triumph. Nobody could Afrikaner middle class deserted the NP to vote for have accused P. W. Botha of weakness had he former ambassador to Britain Denis Worrall and two announced Mandela' s unconditional release in his first other verligte members of the NP who left the party to post-election speech. This step would have offset the run as independents in three key constituencies. These negative impression abroad of white voting behavior. CSIS Africa Notes, June 4, 1987 3 Such an action, however, was ruled out by the politicizing upheaval that another attempted election of demonization of the resistance movement in a representatives to the "illegitimate" racially segregated campaign that further indoctrinated whites against houses of parliament would cause, particularly the compromises rather than preparing them for a (Coloured) House of Representatives and the (Indian) negotiated settlement.
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