The Freedom Front Plus<\/a> (FF+) launches its 2024 general election offer to voters at the Heartfelt Arena, Pretoria, this Saturday, 2 March 2024. The party co-incidentally also turns 30 this year. It registered as a political entity on 4 March 1994, a few weeks before the country\u2019s first democratic elections on 27 April. According to party spokesperson, Wouter Wessels, the FF+ \u2018did not exist before that\u2019.<\/p>\nHistory of the Freedom Front Plus<\/u><\/p>\n
The Freedom Front (FF) was formed in 1994. The party was founded by a number of people, including Dr Pieter Mulder, Dr Corne Mulder, Dr Pieter Groenewald and General Constand Viljoen, a former chief of the South African Defence Force (SADF) who came out of retirement to lead a group of Afrikaners who wanted to form a political party. As head of the Afrikaner Volksfront, Viljoen was instrumental in convincing conservative Afrikaners to participate in the new dispensation, through which, he argued, the issue of self-determination should be taken up.<\/p>\n
In 2001, Louis Luyt\u2019s Federal Alliance (FA) and the Afrikaner Eenheids Beweging (AEB) joined the FF. In the 1999 general election, the FA won 0.54% of the vote and two seats, while the AEB secured 0.29% and a single seat in the National Assembly. During the March\/ April 2003 floor-crossing window, the Conservative Party (CP) joined the Freedom Front. This new entity was renamed the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), in time for the 2004 national and provincial elections.<\/p>\n
Instead of fighting for an Afrikaner homeland, the FF+ focused on advancing the cultural rights of Afrikaners. The party also believes the ruling African National Congress (ANC) can and could be defeated through coalition politics.<\/p>\n
Since its establishment, the FF+ has remained fairly stable with a turnover of only three leaders, namely General Constand Viljoen (1994 \u2013 1999), Dr Pieter Mulder (1999 \u2013 2016) and Dr Pieter Groenewald (2016 until present).<\/p>\n
Tracking the electoral ascendance of the FF+<\/u><\/p>\n
In the country\u2019s first democratic elections on 27 April 1994, the party captured 2.17% of the vote, equating to nine seats. However, five years later, the party\u2019s support weakened to 0.80% or three seats \u2013 a loss of six seats. Speculation is that voters gravitated towards the Democratic Party (DP) \u2013 later Democratic Alliance (DA) \u2013 and its 1999 \u2018Fight Back\u2019 election campaign. Between the 2004 and 2014 general elections, FF+ loyalty remained consistent, with the party maintaining its four seats in the National Assembly. By the time the 2019 election arrived, the party achieved an electoral breakthrough when it increased its support by 1.48 percentage points. Its seat tally in the National Assembly jumped from four to ten seats, a 60% increase.<\/p>\n
A similar electoral breakthrough manifested in the municipal space too. Between the 2016 \u2013 2021 local election cycle, the FF+ witnessed 320 948 more votes for it, a 58% increase, that gave it an additional 154 seats (70%).<\/p>\n
During the 2016 LGE, the party won representation in eight out of South Africa\u2019s nine provinces. The Eastern Cape was the only place where it failed to get a seat. But by 2021, the FF+ won local representation in all nine provinces for the first time.<\/p>\n
Please see below a graphic representation of the party\u2019s electoral performance since 1994 in national, provincial and local elections:<\/p>\n