By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Dr. Corné Mulder was elected the President of Freedom Front Plus (FF+) at the elective conference in Pretoria on Saturday.
Mulder was elected uncontested.
This comes after Dr. Pieter Groenewald, who has been at the helm since 2016, declined to run for re-election.
FF Plus MP Wouter Wessels says “Dr. Groenewald did step down this morning as leader. He did not avail himself again to be elected and he said he has reached the end of the season in which he led the FF Plus. He became leader in 2016 and he decided at it is time at this stage to focus on his role as Minister and his role in Cabinet and the Government of National Unity (GNU) and that he gives over the reins of the party to a new leader and that new leader Corné Mulder was elected uncontested.”
Wessels said that its members and supporters can be assured that despite new leadership, the party’s core values remain the same.
“There is a lot of support for Dr. Groenewald out there, a lot of people who believe in him who voted for us because they associate with him and they do have respect for his stances and his character. But we believe that we are a new leadership and we have the same core values and we will communicate that and he will also communicate that that he did not go away from the party and he is still playing his role as minister, added Wessels.”
One of the biggest surprises of the 2019 elections was the resurrection of the right-wing FF+ as it more than doubled its share of the vote from 0.9% (165,715 votes) in 2014 to 2.38% (414,864 votes).
Started in 1994 as the Freedom Front by General Constant Viljoen for Afrikaners who wanted their own Volkstaat, the party gained nine seats in the first democratic parliament or 2.2% of the national vote with 424,555 votes cast.
This support waned to just 0.8% (127,217 votes cast in 1999.
Shortly before the 2004 general election, the Conservative Party, the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging and the Freedom Front amalgamated under the name Freedom Front Plus (FF+), led by Mulder. Later, they were joined by the Federal Alliance.
The amalgamated party maintained between 0.8% and 0.9% of the vote in ensuing elections but they also lost some credibility when the Freedom Front’s leader Pieter Mulder accepted an appointment as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, under Jacob Zuma in 2009.
The switch from a party for Afrikaner self-determination to embracing all minority groups happened when Groenewald took over leadership of the FF+.