S.A. looking for an Opposition

Press, 29 November 1977, Page 8

S.A. looking for an Opposition

By PIERRE HASKI, of A g e n c e France-Presse, through NZPA Johannesburg South Africa’s General Election tomorrow- is aimed at finding not a Government but an Opposition. There is no doubt that Mr John Vorster’s National Party will continue to hold I the power it first gained in 1948, and it is expected that: it will even increase its' majority. But the white Opposition] parties have undergone nu-i merous changes in the last year, and the uncertain as-1 pect of the election, therefore, is who will form the | Opposition in the next Parliament, The United Party, headed: by Sir de Villiers Graaf.| which for 20 years had: formed the official Opposition, nas been broken up by schisms and disagreement. Today the title of official Parliamentary Opposition is, contested by the Progressive! Federal Party which favours an anti-apartheid policy. It has the backing of the English language] press and certain business] circles, such as the empire] headed by the. gold-and-diamond mining magnate, Harry Oppenheimer. The P.F.P. held 18 seats of the 165 seats in the old Parliament, and was formed out of the successive splinterings from the United Party. It proposes a limited sharing of power between the different groups forming South Africa’s population,

and a Federal constitution aimed at preventing the domination of any one race. The English-language press is heavily campaigning for the P.F.P. on the ground that a more coherent Opposition could attract to it some of the enlightened nat-

ionalist Afrikaners who are disappointed at the immobility of the Government in the face of internal racial tension and external pressures. One of the P.F.P. s electoral slogans is its call tor] an open society free from] ■ compulsory integration or: compulsory segregation. Violently attacked by the; National Party, which ac-i cuses it of wanting io sell; ■ the country out to black-] [majority power, the P.F.P.I I has also come under heavy! [tire from another Breakaway from Sir de Villiers Graaf’s 'official Opposition, the New ] Republic Party. The N.R.P.’s very survival | is on the line in the coming I election especially in Musgrave, Natal, where its Header, Mr Radclyffe Cadiman. is standing against the IP.F.P.’s chairman, Mr Ray [Swart. If Mr Swart sweeps the! field the N.R.P.’s 23 seats in; I the outgoing Parliament will; .probably be cut for some; [time to come. ■ Two other more marginal [groups are also contesting I for the support of the white 'electorate: the South African i Party, a Right-wing break[away from the United Party, and the New National Party ’(the Herstigte Nasionale Par-', tei), founded in 1970 as a] i hard-line splinter to the 'Right of the ruling party. I The South African party is now very close to the party in power, while the New National Party attacks the Government for allegedly selling the country to the blacks.

1 In this situation the Opposition party leaders are prepared to risk losing up to 10 : seats to the National Party v merely because they con’l sider it essential that the [I electorate chooses from -lamong them.