Another New Day in South Africa

by Cliopatria

The National Party (NP, or Nats) of South Africa is no more. Renamed the “New National Party” in 1997 with hopes of reforming to be viable in light of the new realities in Mandela’s Rainbow Nation of God, the Nats never really could fine a place in multiracial South Africa. On Sunday the party dissolved, but not before giving an apology for apartheid:

Former party leader (and now ANC member) Marthinus van Schalkwyk told the party’s federal council before making the motion to disband, “The National Party brought development to a section of South Africa, but also brought suffering through a system grounded on injustice. “ In what probably will serve as a pretty good epitaph for the party that brought “separate development” and “Bantustans” and Orwellian laws the intent of which were almost always the exact opposite of what the names of the laws implied, Van Schalkwyk said, “No party could hope to successfully atone and move ahead in the same vehicle” and his hope was that by disbanding, he could do his part to end “the division of the South African soul.”

So what does this all mean? Probably very little. The Nats were a dinosaur, and the New Nats were just the same fossil in a new tar pit. The National Party constituency, especially after World War II, always had at its heart racial separation of the cruelest sort. Once multiracial democracy shattered the old apartheid walls, the Nats were reduced to rubble as well. If the party no longer stood to serve the needs of the racists in the Broederbond, what was the purpose? The National Party after 1994, and especially after 1999, was akin to a Dixiecrat National Convention after 1965 – anachronistic at best, distasteful in any case, and something easily ignored.

I don’t want the National Party to rest in peace. I want it to suffer forty-six years of restless nights with kidney stones. But with the Nats gracefully bowing out, and with an apology to boot, now seems like another good moment to celebrate both the reality and the potential for transformation in southern Africa.

comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Derek Charles Catsam - 4/11/2005

Chris --
I agree -- the way that the TRC introduced (in a substantial way -- these terms had existed before in the realm of the theoretical) the restorative vs. retributive justice difference as a way of addressing past injustices is one of the great legacies of the transition from apartheid. It is still stunning that someone could leave the NP/NNP and be welcomed into the ANC not only as a party member, but also as a minister.
I'm still wary that the 70% representation might be too much of a good thing, but I still think South Africa can and will lead the way in southern Africa.
dc

Rich Holmes - 4/11/2005

Chris-

Thanks very much, I appreciate it. I'll give some of these cases a read sometime. I look forward to it.

+Rich

chris l pettit - 4/11/2005

One other thing on the post below...it seems that you are getting to the root of resorative justice versus retributive justice. What would have happened to old Kortbroek were he to have been in nearly any other country? And his party?

I think we all have a lot to learn from the way the TRC handled things and the idea of reconciliation...

CP

chris l pettit - 4/11/2005

I meant to comment on the post below...

DOn't you love the nickname? One of the absolute classic insults of our time (too bad we can't screen Amandla and a couple other Apartheid-struggle explaining films on Rebunk). Some of the revolutionary songs are just fantastic...and the toyi toyi...can you imagine what would happen in the US if anti-war protestors had as much vigor as the protestors here? I still attend marches on Parliament with the TAC and various other groups...and even give a talk once in a while. The anti-Iraq war demonstration here right before we invaded was amazing. I gave a talk at that rally in front of 200,000+ and had never felt such energy...especially in front of a US embassy that looked like a fortress. With the singing and dancing...the evocative speeches in Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English...it is true democracy of the sort we Americans can only dream of at this juncture.

By the way...is there any more expressive language to curse or insult someone in than Afrikaans? I can't think of one...great language...although they have to get rid of that atrocious music.

Hope I am making you nostalgic...

Cheers from the city with a Table as its backdrop

CP

Derek Charles Catsam - 4/11/2005

Chris --
I had the Independent Dems in mind, but they just missed my 2% threshold. They got 1.7% of the vote and garnered 7 seats in Parliament.
Chris makes a bunch of good points. i especially like the reminder that SA is only ten years into democracy -- too many are way too pessimistic. I may post something on this down the road.
dc

chris l pettit - 4/11/2005

hey Rich...

try here...

www.concourt.gov.za/

In addition, a simple Google search will also get you a lot of commentary in addition to the decisions themselves (at least the major ones).

If you have a specific topic that you would like to do a comparative study on, let me know and I will toss some cases your way....

CP

chris l pettit - 4/11/2005

sorry...the judiciary would be called activists, not advocates...which just means they actually interpret the law and do their job properly instead of following the whims of political ideologues...

Rich...when I suggested cases...the Grootboom case, the Soobramony case, the Azanian peoples case, the Certification judgment, the gay marriage case (cant remember the name at the moment). There have been mistakes that will be corrected (a case involving the Rastafari faith and a benefits case involving heterosexual or homosexual couples who merely live together for a long time without getting married...in addition a couple of phrases in the Grootboom case that the ANC has seized on to drag their feet and not do anything) and are in the process of being re-examined. I am lucky enough to know a couple of the judges on the Constitutional Court personally and have lunch with one (Albie Sachs) on a monthly basis. I can assure you that they are some of the brightest legal minds I have ever been around. By the way, were you aware that the Chief Justice in the Massachusetts gay marriage case, Maggie Mitchell, is South African? She wrote the opinion and had a major impact on the reasoning. Lead it to a South African to get the US population to confront its ignorance...

CP

Richard Holmes - 4/11/2005

Very interesting. My thanks to both DC and Chris for their insight.

Chris- any direction you can give me in terms of where I can read some of these cases? Do the SA courts publish their decisions online somewhere? I'm not sure how my boss would feel about me spending some time on Westlaw searching for these decisions. (Unless of course we could bill it to Rebunk - ;) Thanks again.

+Rich

chris l pettit - 4/11/2005

DC forgot the Independent Democrats, lead by Particia De Lille...but this is a very recent addition (2003) when she broke away from the ANC. A few individuals (including myself) had pretty high hopes for the ID, as De Lille was sick of the worst parts of the ANC platform (adoption of "free market" US principles that betrayed their core constituents, the ignoring of good points made by the SACP and COSATU, the atrocious stance on HIV/AIDS, the refusal to implement judicial decisions on health care and housing, adoption of a "black empowerment" program that created a black elite to go along with a white elite that kept everything they made of Apartheid and left everyone else behind, failure to implement the land re-distribution policy, etc.) and sought to make her own party. Unfortunately, the ID has suffered from corruption and infighting, and has not made much progress. By the way, please do not see my criticism of the ANC as a lack of support. I am an ANC fan...I am NOT a Mbeki fan, or a fan of many of his ministers. The corruption and hunger for power in this government is unbelievable. I simply am pointing out aspects of the ANC that are highly undesirable and need to be addressed. Can that be done without some competition? Probably not, but the DA would be real cozy with Bush and share many of his atrocious positions (economic as well as political). Tony Leon is one of those politicians that makes Cheney look good. To be perfectly honest, there is not a desirable opposition party at the moment, so the best recourse people have found is through the courts.

THis being said...South Africa is only 10 years removed from Apartheid and total upheaval, has the best Constitution in the world as relates to human rights, peace and equality, and has the most effective and progressive judiciary in the world (people in the US would definitely term them advocates). The death penalty is abolished, the rights to health care, housing, standard of living, education, special rights of children that cannot be undercut in any circumstances are all guaranteed under the Constitution. Gay marriage is allowed, customary law of indigenous peoples is respected, the judiciary is required under the Constitution to take international law into consideration in its judgments and not rule against it without an exceptional explanation (for that reason it often tears apart US judgments and reasoning...you would do well to read a few cases, Rich...it shows what law can be like when it is not politicized). This country truly is an example of a nation on the right path...possibly the example in the international community. The negative qualities of the ANC need to be addressed and some of the historical inequalities and remnants of Apartheid need to be corrected, but this nation and the government are doing all right.

DC is right to celebrate the demise of the NNP...I would not be surprised to see many of the supporters end up in the DA though.

CP

Derek Charles Catsam - 4/11/2005

Oh, is that all you want?!
basically, the ANC has concolidated its rule in South Africa. the ANC is actually a loose coalition of the ANC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party. I have long believed (and indeed hoped) that COSATU and the SACP woud break away from the ANC, though perhaps not for the doctrinaire reason of getting rid of the SACP. I simply believe that down the road, the demands of a more left-wing COSATU_SACP aloiance will grate against the ANC. the problem with this conjecture is that it flies in the face of reality -- the ANC is the tall hog in the trough right now, and will be for a while (it got 69.7% of the vote in the 2004 elections) and no one will want to leave that. But for the sake of true democracy, I hope it eventually happens. This is what it comes down to -- the challenge to the ANC that eventually (we hope -- and I am an ANC supporter, I just am wary of democracies with a majority in power that is both this overwhelming and this entrenched) will eventually come from an African party, or a multiracial coalition, and not froma party trying to have a kinder, gentler white voice a la the New Nats.
As for other parties, there are more than twenty that got votes in the last election, though only three received more than 2% of the vote -- the Democratic Alliance received 12%+ (=50 seats in Parliament) they are a largely white "centrist" party (centrist for a largely white party, certainly, conservative in most ways, though, but to say conservative about white South Africans implies something different from saying conservative in the US. Mangosotho Buthelezi's Inkatha freedom Party (IFP) got almost 7% of the vote (28 seats). IFP, of course, is the Zulu nationalist party based largely in KwaZulu-Natal. The United Democratic Movement, a somewhat biracial party to the left of the DA but to the right of the ANC received a little more than 2% (9 seats). A handful of other parties received just under or over 1%, with 6 of these receiving seats in Parliament ranging from 7 seats to 3.

dc

Rich Holmes - 4/11/2005

DC-

Interesting post. Not having closely followed the developments in South Africa following the end of aparthied, I am wondering what political parties emerged after the end of aparthied, the ideological background for each, and which is considered a "strong" party versus those that are perceived as "weak."

+Rich