SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27072, 22 June 1953, Page 10

SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS

New Parties Change Scene

OPPOSITION TO NATIONALISTS (From a Reuter Corespondent.)

JOHANNESBURG. The formation of two new parties in South Africa has radically re-oriented the opposition to Dr. Daniel Malan’s re-elected Nationalist Party Government. The birth of a Liberal Party and a Union Federal Party to rival the long-established United Party and minority Labour Party indicates the end of the united front Opposition which worked to unseat the Nationalists in the April elections of the House of Assembly.

The third party to the united front | was the Torch Commando, non-, political independent anti-Nationalist organisation founded by war veterans, which has been virtually split by some top Torch men founding the new, Union Federal Party. Other senior Torch executives have since resigned their posts in protest against the launching of the new movement in preference to continued support of the United Party. The future of the Commando itself is now threatened. If it disbanded, Dr. Malan’s Nationalists would face only a disintegrated opposition of four rival parties instead of the former united front which co-ordinated everyone against the Government. Of these the United Party, headed by Mr Jacobus Strauss, disciple of the late Field-Marshal Smuts, the wartime Prime Minister, is likely to. remain the strongest political magnet for anti-Nationalists despite its loss of the April election by more seats than in 1948. This loss, however, convinced the new Liberal and Union Federal splinter groups that something new in opposition politics was needed to regain power from the entrenched Nationalist Party. Some leading political , authorities ' have calculated that the Nationalists’ second successive victory at the South African polls showed by analysis, that with the country’s majority Afrikaner population steadily growing and predominantly pro-Government, there < seems little reason why Malan’s j followers should ever lose power in 3 the present trends. 1 Evidence of this, they say, can be . seen- in the increased success, in mar- . ginal industrial constituencies, of . Nationalist Party candidates who are supported by new age groups of ( Afrikaner voters moving in on indus- ; trial centres. Other reasons are that , Opposition voters were concentrated , heavily in some industrial seats where thousands of surplus votes were “wasted” and the Government showed . themselves more secure than ever m the numerous country districts which are only lightly “loaded” with populaSome observers think that new political lines taken by Opposition supporters defecting from the United Party may prove less helpful to the anti-Nationalist cause than if they continued to co-operate, however loosely, in an united front -The United Party, ■ until the formation of the new movements. had a wide waveband of political feelings in its ranks, with the Liberals, perhaps, spiritually and politically the most restless. Many in South African political circles agree that the birth of a Liberal Party is logical, even essential, though few wilF predict any parliamentary success for it at the present stage of racial evolution. It clears the political atmosphere, providing a home for people with a worried conscience about colour restrictions. But it may, in fact, win more sympathy than votes for the time being. Its call for an end to the colour bar in Government and “other democratic processes’’ with a common franchise roll for “all suitable qualified persons” may yet be too liberal for most white South Africans. Federal Party’s Plans The Union Federal Party, with its programme for re-shaping the Uiuon of South Africa into a Federal Union with a long-term policy of. united states of South Africa and giving any province the right to remain part of the British Commonwealth if the Union’s Constitution is violated, has had only a mixed reception. Although its strongest appeal may be to the predominantly English province of Natal which fears any plan to run South Africa into a Republic, the Union Federal Party is seen by some important Opposition quarters, notably leading newspapers, as an act of defeatism and lack of faith in the ultimate destiny of the Union. Both new parties reflect a more liberal attitude to colour than has been preached before in South African politics, possibly & significant clue to the future. This attitude is more generous than, the present policy of the United Party leadership now being criticised—since the election—for a tendency to compromise on colour issues to reach Afrikaner voters. The leader of the United Party, Mr Strauss, calling this equality motive in both parties impracticable, deplored the creation of both new jnovements. But he argued that ultimately the United Party, in the middle, would gain from extremists either end, Liberals or Nationalists, who must cancel themselves out. Both the new parties, he also observed, had been launched by people “who have never had real experience of the nature of the battle which the United Party is waging against the forces of extreme nationalism in South Africa.” Not all agree that the United Party can afford to brush off the new parties too easily. If they present candidates at the . provincial elections due m South Africa next year, the first real test of public reaction, they will inevitably drain off some United Party strength by dividing the. Opposition vote against the Nationalists. Nationalist Government leaders, meanwhile, watch the stresses and strains within the defeated Opposition with some satisfaction, arguing that they show that the country could npt have hoped for a stable government from it. It also tempts them to think that the process of Opposition realignment may release enough rightwing sympathisers to answer the victory appeal of the Prime Minister, I Dr. Daniel Malan, for help in obtaining ‘ a two-thirds Parliamentary majority ; to settle old controversies over coni' stitutional issues.