Conservative Party (South Africa)

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The Conservative Party of South Africa (Konserwatiewe Party van Suid-Afrika in Afrikaans) was a far-right party formed in 1982 as a breakaway from the ruling National Party. Led by Andries Treurnicht, a former Dutch Reformed Church minister, popularly known as 'Doctor No', it drew support from white South Africans, mostly Afrikaners, who opposed Prime Minister PW Botha's reforms, which they saw as a threat to white minority rule, and the racial segregation known as apartheid. It became the official opposition in the whites-only Parliament in the elections of May 6, 1987, when it surpassed the liberal Progressive Federal Party.

In the local elections of 1987, the Conservative Party won 60 municipalities out of 110 in the Transvaal, and 1 out of 4 in the Orange Free State. The Conservative Party received 43% of the Afrikaner votes and 7.5% of the English speaking votes.

[edit] International links

In the late 1980s the party established links with the far-right anti-communist pressure group in Britain, the Western Goals Institute, who hosted at least two visits to London by Treurnicht and other delegates. On June 5 1989 Treurnicht was accompanied by Clive Derby-Lewis, M.P. for Krugersdorp, and Carl Werth, the party's organizer in Natal, on a ten-day tour of European capitals. The Conservative Monday Club, a supporter of white rule in South Africa, hosted a black-tie banquet at the Charing Cross Hotel in London for Treurnicht and his entourage.

[edit] Opposition to negotiations to end apartheid

The Conservative Party led the "no" campaign during the 1992 referendum, when white South Africans where asked to determine whether or not they supported the negotiated reforms started by the government. The result was a defeat for the Conservatives and the "no" side, when 68% of white voters voted "yes".

About this time, as apartheid was being dismantled, the Conservative Party reached the peak of its influence, with 39 Members of Parliament, but its support rapidly declined after majority rule in 1994. Clive Derby-Lewis was found guilty in 1993 (under the emergency legislation enacted by the white parliament to counter terrorism) of involvement in the assassination of South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani. In 1997, party leader Ferdi Hartzenberg testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the assassination had been carried out on the party's behalf.[1]