De Klerk: NNP might surprise
2004-04-14 12:30
Cape Town - Former president FW de Klerk, who voted at the Sonop Primary school in Paarl on Wednesday morning, said his old party - the New National Party (NNP) - "might come up with a surprise" in the national election on Wednesday.
Speaking after voting to a big contingent of journalists, De Klerk was asked whether he thought predictions of a bleak election for his old party - which ruled South Africa from 1949 to 1994 - were true, he said: "I do not share in the negative analysis that has been made. The NNP might come up with somewhat of a surprise."
"I think it is going to do very well in the Western Cape," said De Klerk, but, he added: "I am more worried about what is going to happen in other parts of the country."
He was asked about KwaZulu-Natal, in particular, where a possible change in government could occur, but he said he believed the pattern of previous elections would be revisited in this election.
He suggested that it would be "marginal on either side". Asked if he meant the IFP or the ANC - he said he was referring to the IFP-DA partnership or the ANC-NNP partnership in that province.
"I don't think there will be any major surprises. I think there are a few uncertainties. I think we know which party will win the elections. My hope is that we have a very big turnout. Let the voters now speak. The politicians have had the opportunity to speak a lot."
"I have supported my old party - the NNP."
He said that the problems are there to be solved. "One should not sit in the corner and cry."
Exciting challenges
"I support the NNP which has gone out of its way and taken great risks to be solution-orientated where their input can make a difference. We are a country in transition and as a country in transition I think that typical West European and British confrontational democracy is not the answer for us at the moment. We should work together to solve our big problems in South Africa and accept our exciting challenges.
"The next ten years will be dominated by the need for orderly, effective economic transformation."
Asked about the declaration of support by former NP president PW Botha for the right-of-centre Afrikaner-based party the Freedom Front Plus led by Pieter Mulder, De Klerk said he was surprised by this move, although Botha had said subsequent to the reports that he would not talk any more about it.
However, De Klerk said he did find it difficult to understand that Botha could support them when the forerunners of the Freedom Front - obviously referring to FF leaders Pieter Mulder and his brother Corne Mulder - had attacked Botha in the past. Referring to the need for consensus government, he said the ANC had not needed to have IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi in the cabinet, but nevertheless he had remained in that cabinet. De Klerk said he hoped some form of co-operation of this kind would continue after the elections.