Conservative Party (South Africa)

The Conservative Party of South Africa (short: Conservative Party, CP, Afrikaans: Konserwatiewe party van Suid -Afrika, KP, German: Conservative Party ) was a party in South Africa. Shortly before the end of apartheid, it became the largest opposition party.

History

In 1982 the CP split off from the ruling National Party ( NP). The NP was the dominant party in the system of apartheid, however, appeared to some critics as too moderate. Occasion of the split was the formation of a three-chamber system with parliaments for Coloureds and " Indian". First leader of the CP was Andries Treurnicht, formerly pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church and South African Minister of Education. The followers of the CP were mostly Boers, who lived in the countryside, particularly in the former province of Transvaal. After the elections on 6 May 1987 the Conservative Party instead of the liberal Progressive Federal Party with 22 MPs strongest opposition force and thus " official opposition " to the NP was. In the local elections in the same year she won in the Transvaal in 60 of 110 municipalities and in the Orange Free State in a quarter of the municipalities. In the parliamentary elections of 1989, the last election before the end of apartheid, they received approximately 31.5 percent of the votes and remained the official opposition party.

In the 1992 referendum voted only 32 percent of eligible whites for the stop of the negotiations, which the CP had recommended. Died in 1993 Treurnicht, and Ferdinand Hartz Mountain became the new party leader. The CP decided, the parliamentary elections of 1994, in which were allowed to vote all adult South Africans first to boycott. Their influence declined thereafter in favor of politically similar Vryheidsfront ( Freedom Front ). 2003 merged the two parties, together with the Africans Eenheidsbeweging to Vryheidsfront Plus.

The CP - politician Clive Derby - Lewis was involved in the assassination of ANC politician Chris Hani in 1993. In the same year he was found guilty for it. In 1997, Hartz Mountain to before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the assassination had been carried out with the approval of the party leadership to destabilize the country. Derby - Lewis is serving a life sentence for the crime.