After our first democratic elections in 1994, the New National Party (NNP) emerged as a much larger party than the then Democratic Party (DP). This situation changed after the 1999 elections, with the DP overtaking the NNP. The 2004 elections have confirmed the former DP, now the Democratic Alliance (DA), as by far the bigger of the two. The DA now proudly proclaims - the NNP is dead: the DA lives!
For almost the entire period of the colonisation of our country, the two political tendencies represented by these two parties, the one "conservative" and the other "liberal", have competed against each other for the allegiance of the white population of our country. (This struggle is detailed in the book, "A Marriage made in Heaven".)
Throughout the period of colonialism and apartheid, the "conservative" tendency succeeded to maintain itself as the dominant force. But, seemingly, democracy has opened the doors for the "liberal" tendency to triumph, as represented by the victory of the DA over the NNP.
We have borrowed the title of this Letter from the novel by Charles Dickens, 'A Tale of Two Cities'. The novel begins with the famous words:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."
Clearly, for the DA, the age of democracy is the best of times, and the worst of times for the NNP. For the DA it is the season of Light and the spring of hope, and the season of Darkness and the winter of despair for the NNP.
Undoubtedly, the DA believes that it has everything before it, going direct to Heaven, while the NNP has nothing before it, going direct the other way -to Hell.
However, for us and for our country, this is nothing but an optical illusion, the product of a conjurer's trick, which has transformed a season of Darkness into a season of Light, the winter of despair into the spring of hope.
The sleight of hand that has produced the illusion consists in the fact that the DA has managed to retain the label "liberal", while transforming itself into a "conservative" party. From 1994, as the DP, it set out to win the support of the traditional supporters of the NNP, continuing the age-old struggle between the "conservative" and "liberal" tendencies in white politics.
To succeed in this venture, as it has, it had to present itself to the historical base of the NNP as the authentic representative of the "conservative" tradition, asserting that the NNP no longer was. To maintain the support of its own traditional base, it had to continue to project a "liberal" face, which it could claim the NNP never had.
To emerge as the dominant voice of white South Africa, as it has, it had to be both "liberal" and "conservative", liberal in its rhetoric and conservative in its substance. It had to perpetuate the dominance of the "conservative" tendency in white politics, while pretending that it had not abandoned its historic "liberal" mission. Like Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, "in hypocrisy, it (has) worn the mask of goodness."
The ANC Deputy Chief Whip in the National Assembly, Andries Nel, discussed some of this in his response to the State of the Nation Address on May 26. Among other things he said:
"(Mr Leon) says, 'The DA agrees on the need for radical and fundamental change. But the policy of transformation, as the ANC defines it, aims at something more. The goal of this transformation is to achieve "representivity" - a state of affairs in which every institution, public and private, reflects the demographics of South Africa as a whole.'
"If Mr. Leon is suggesting that we should perpetuate apartheid by agreeing to a situation where some institutions, public and private, are left to be unrepresentative, then clearly we disagree on more than just means. How does one argue for radical and fundamental change in our context and at the same time oppose attempts to make society as representative as possible? Who is Mr. Leon suggesting should remain unrepresented and in which institutions?"
Of course, the answer to Andries Nel's question - how does one argue for fundamental change and oppose the deracialisation of our country? - is that this emanates from the need to be simultaneously "conservative" and "liberal".
In his response to the State of the Nation Address, entitled "We agree on the ends; we disagree on the means", the leader of the DA also said, "Today, South Africa is living with a curious paradox: as the economic gap between black and white is shrinking, the political gap between black and white is growing.
"The ballots (during the 2004 elections) revealed that South Africans are still deeply divided along racial lines. The DA had won approximately 75 percent of the vote in predominantly white voting districts, while the ANC won 82 percent of the vote in predominantly black areas."
It was good that Mr Leon raised this matter himself because if we had done so, we would have been accused in strident voices of "playing the race card".
But again we are back at the game of optical illusions. The figures quoted by Mr Leon suggest that the DA does significantly better than the ANC at attracting support from outside its principal base, the figures being 25% and 18% respectively.
In absolute terms however, 482, 801 of the DA votes came from outside "predominantly white voting districts". With regard to the ANC, 1,958, 086 of its votes came from outside "predominantly black areas". In other words, DA support beyond its principal base amounted to a mere 24.65% of ANC support beyond its own principal base.
All this confirms the success the DA has achieved in defining itself as essentially a white party, an objective it pursued when it decided to replace the NNP as the authentic representative of the white "conservative" tendency in our national life. By so doing, it provided a new home for this tendency, rather than secure the victory of "liberalism" over "conservatism".
Two objective factors combined to bring about this DA victory, its partisan season of Light. One of these was the persisting "conservatism" of many among the white section of our population, making these susceptible to the traditional phobia of "die swart gevaar".
The second was the fact that the NNP was engaged in a serious and determined effort to transform itself from a party of Afrikaner and white "liberation" into a new movement for the liberation of all South Africans. Thus, as the DA correctly determined, the NNP had taken the remarkable and historic decision to abandon its post as the champion of white "conservatism", and join the ranks of those who genuinely seek the "radical and fundamental change" the DA falsely claims to support.
After the tabling of the final report of the TRC and therefore the conclusion of its work, the ANC and the NNP issued a joint statement, which, among other things, said:
"The greater part of the period between (the beginning of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st) was characterised by socio-economic progress achieved at immense human cost, as well as a protracted struggle to resolve the question of how our diverse nation could live and work together, at peace with itself, sharing a common patrimony.
"The African National Congress (ANC), formed in 1912, and the National Party (NP), formed in 1914, were at the centre of these processes, the principal protagonists in a contest that was only resolved in 1994.
"The one represented the perspective of an inclusive African nationalism, and the other, that of an exclusive Afrikaner, and later, white nationalism."
The statement then went on to say:
"Throughout the 20th Century our political formations were the principal antagonists in the struggle to determine the future of our country.
"In the 21st Century we shall work together to help build the new united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa to which the overwhelming majority of our people are committed.
"We call on all South Africans of goodwill to join us on an exciting journey that will lead us to the birth of the humane, caring and peaceful society for which many South Africans sacrificed their lives. We owe this to ourselves and to future generations so that we transform our country into a beacon of hope in a turbulent world."
Remarkably, the principal antagonists in the bitter struggle to determine the future of our country committed themselves to work together to build a new united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. This represented a development that would not be easy to find in any other country.
For it to succeed, required that one of the antagonists, the ANC, should commit itself in word and deed to the task of building the national unity and reconciliation for which the TRC had been created, forgiving the harm that had been done to our people in the name of white supremacy.
It required that the other antagonist, the NNP, should also commit itself in word and deed to the task of building national unity and reconciliation, and thereby turn its back on the policies which, in the past, had divided our country into hostile and contending factions.
The NNP took these positions because it understood the historic responsibility it had to the peoples of our country and the world to contribute to the eradication of the terrible legacy of its policies. For this reason, directed at the greater good for all South Africans, it took the courageous decision to put the interests of our country and people above its own selfish and partisan interests.
Similarly, the ANC understood that, again in the interests of our country and people, it had to come together with those who had been its enemy to guarantee that never again should the different racial groups in our country see one another as opponents with mutually antagonistic aspirations. It too had to rise above any selfish and partisan interests that might have suggested that it should adopt a position of victorious triumphalism.
A firm foundation has been laid for our country to make a new beginning, including bringing together the members and supporters of the ANC and the NNP into united action.
For the ANC, the NNP and our people as a whole, this, indeed, is the best of times, the age of wisdom, the season of Light, the spring of hope, with everything before us. The white "conservatism" that had condemned our country to a future where we had nothing before us will never come to dominate our lives again. Its season of Light is, in reality, its season of Darkness.
