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The 1999 Election and New Orientations in Opposition Politics in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

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Extract

South Africa’s 1999 election presented the country’s opposition parties with a number of serious challenges. For the three years before this second democratic election, opposition parties had been building up their hopes for 1999 as the year when the African National Congress (ANC) colossus might start shedding support and create space for opposition growth. Instead, the 1999 election fragmented the opposition, halved the size of the single biggest opposition party, annihilated opposition parties in most of the ANC-controlled provinces, and strengthened the ANC in the two opposition-controlled provinces. It also brought enhanced cooperation between the ANC and precisely those opposition parties that might have given credibility to a realigned opposition movement.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999 

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References

Notes

1. City Press, August 15, 1999.

2. B. Geldenhuys, interview by author, NNP, Cape Town, March 1999.

3. C. Van den Berg, interview by author, NNP, Durban, May 1999.

4. Johan Kilian, as quoted in Beeld, March 23, 1999.

5. Beeld, June 8, 1999.

6. Die Burger, August 16, 1999.

7. T. Leon, interview by author, DP, Cape Town, November 1997.

8. See, e.g., Opinion ’99 (poll by Markinor/SABC/Idasa), April 1999; and Independent Indicator (opinion polls by independent newspapers), January 1999 and May 1999; K. Andrew, interview by author, DP, Cape Town, March 1999.

9. J. Selfe, interview by author, DP, Cape Town, May 1999.

10. Business Day, May 31, 1999.

11. Eastern Province Herald, Augast 16, 1999.

12. City Press, January 30, 1999; K. van der Merwe, interview by author, IFP, Cape Town, November 1998.

13. M. Zondi, interview by author, IFP, Durban, May 1999.

14. The Sunday Independent, November 8, 1999.

15. Die Volbblad, November 26, 1998.

16. A. van Wyk, interview by author, UDM, Pretoria, May 1999.

17. P. Mulder, interview by author, FF, Cape Town, November 1997.

18. Ngwenya, interview by author, PAC, Pretoria, May 1998.

19. Eastern Province Herald, May 17, 1999.

20. Sowetan, May 31, 1999.

21. Sunday World, April 25, 1999.

22. Sowetan, June 10, 1999.

23. “Life in the New Democracy, 1997” (Matla Trust, August 1999, unpublished report); Susan Booyson, “Election ’99: The Voters Speak” (National Democratic Institute/Street Law, unpublished report).

24. Reality Check Opinion Polls, December 1998 and May 1999.

25. “Life in the New Democracy, 1997.”

26. Booyson, “Election ’99.”

27. “Life in the New Democracy, 1997”; Booyson, “Election ’99.”