FF+ ‘may steal some votes from DA, Good’

The Freedom Front Plus’s (FF+) grassroots approach could see it steal some votes from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Patricia de Lille’s Good party, but it’s not strong enough to dent the DA’s national strength, a political analyst says.

Unisa professor Dirk Kotze said although the FF+ was seen as an alternative to the DA among sections of the Afrikaner and Coloured people, it could not be compared to the DA at a national level at this stage.

The last election results, in which the FF+ got a mere 0.9% and the DA 22% of the vote, clearly showed the two were far apart.

But the fact that the FF+ was promoting community self-determination would make it a popular party among conservative Afrikaans-speakers and conservative Coloured voters disillusioned with the DA, but who did not trust the newly established Good party led by former DA Cape Town mayor De Lille.

He said the FF+ was already taking advantage of dissatisfaction with the DA among those groups, who believe the party has abandoned them in favour of black voters. However, Kotze stressed that the FF+ was still too small to take on the DA directly.

“There must be major disillusionment with the DA. This will not happen in the next election. The DA is still powerful at this stage,” he said.

The majority of FF+ supporters were the more conservative Afrikaners, mainly the older generation, Kotze said. The party’s support was concentrated in Gauteng at over 50%, followed by Free State and North West.

“Gauteng is a very diverse and a highly contested province among the political parties, including the ANC, DA, and EFF, therefore it’s impossible for the FF+ to claim that province as theirs.”

He said the conservative Coloured sector was symbolised by leaders such as Peter Marais, who recently returned to politics and joined the FF+, which put him forward as its Western Cape premier candidate.

At the party’s manifesto launch, FF+ leader Pieter Groenewald called for the policies of black economic empowerment and affirmative action to be scrapped, saying race should not be a consideration in helping the poor. He said instead of helping the poor, BEE had benefited the black elite at the expense of the poor.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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