Freedom Front Plus

The Freedom Front Plus (FF+; Afrikaans: Vryheidsfront Plus, VF+) is a right-wing national South African political party that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Pieter Groenewald. Its current stated policy positions include amending affirmative action and land reform to protect the interests of Afrikaners.[4]

Freedom Front Plus

Vryheidsfront Plus  (Afrikaans)
LeaderPieter Groenewald
ChairpersonAnton Alberts
SpokespersonPieter Swart
Chief WhipCorné Mulder
CEOPieter de Necker
FounderConstand Viljoen
Founded1 March 1994 (1994-03-01)
(as Freedom Front)
Merger of
Split fromAfrikaner Volksfront
HeadquartersHighveld Office Park
Charles de Gaulle Crescent
Centurion, Gauteng
Youth wingFreedom Front Plus Youth
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing[2][3]
International affiliationUnrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Colours     Green      Dark orange
SloganDaar is hoop
(There is hope)
National Assembly seats
10 / 400
NCOP seats
3 / 90
Provincial Legislatures
11 / 430
Website
www.vfplus.org.za

Along with other smaller parties, the FF+ entered into coalition with the larger Democratic Alliance (DA) after the 2016 municipal elections to govern Johannesburg, Tshwane and several other municipalities.

Foundation and early years

The Freedom Front was founded on 1 March 1994 by members of the Afrikaner community under Constand Viljoen, after he had left the Afrikaner Volksfront amidst disagreements. Seeking to achieve his goals through political means, Viljoen registered the Freedom Front with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on 4 March 1994 to take part in the April 1994 general elections. (This date has also been given as 7 March.) On 12 March 1994 Viljoen handed in a list of candidates for the FF to the IEC, confirming that his party would take part in the elections.

In the election, under the leadership of General Viljoen, the Freedom Front received 2.2% of the national vote (with 424,555 votes cast), earning nine seats in the National Assembly, and 3.3% (with 639,643 votes cast) of the combined vote to the nine provincial legislatures. This suggested that many Afrikaners had split their vote. The party performed the best in the rural areas of the former Transvaal and Orange Free State, and was noted by the new deputy president Thabo Mbeki as representing possibly as much as half the Afrikaner voting population in these areas, with the strongest support among farmers and the working class.[5]

Freedom Front support would gradually melt away in the coming years, as the party was strung along in ultimately fruitless negotiations with the African National Congress (ANC) to create a Volkstaat making the party lose its importance. It would also receive increased competition from new parties such as the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging. In the 1999 election their support dropped to 0.8% (127,217 votes cast) with three seats in the National Assembly and between 1-2% in their stronghold provinces. This represented a respectable portion of the Afrikaner vote, but nowhere near earlier levels. The party's support remained relatively stable in all national elections held during the next twenty years.

In 2001, Viljoen handed over the leadership of the Freedom Front to Pieter Mulder.

Formation of the Freedom Front Plus
Freedom Front logo between 1994–2003

In 2003, shortly before the 2004 general election, the Conservative Party, the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging and the Freedom Front decided to contest the election as a single entity under the name Freedom Front Plus (FF+), led by Mulder. Later, also the Federal Alliance joined the VF+/FF+.

In the 2004 general election, support for the Freedom Front Plus rose slightly to 0.89% (139,465 votes cast). The party won one seat in most of the provincial legislatures, and four seats in the National Assembly.

In the 2006 municipal elections, the Freedom Front Plus received 1% of the popular vote (252,253 votes cast).

In the 2009 general election, the party received 0.83% (146,796 votes cast) and retained its four seats in the National Assembly but lost its seats in the provincial legislatures of North West, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape. After the elections, the Freedom Front's leader Pieter Mulder was appointed as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by the new President Jacob Zuma.

In the 2014 general election, the FF Plus increased its vote slightly to 0.9%. It retained its 4 MPs, and also regained a seat in the North West.[6]

FF Plus voter support increased substantially in the 2019 general election, with the party growing its vote total by 250,000, to 2.38% of the national vote, earning ten seats in the National Assembly. This was even slightly more than the nine seats that the old Freedom Front had received in 1994. Additionally, it gained eight seats in the provincial legislatures, for a new total of eleven. In the 2014 general election, the FF Plus won seats in three provincial legislatures, in this election, it has won seats in eight out of the nine provincial legislatures. Its new supporters were largely Afrikaners and coloured voters from the Western Cape who had previously supported the DA.[7][8]

The party has enjoyed consistent landslide victories in the Afrikaner enclave Orania.[9]

Since the 2019 general election, the FF Plus has also won three wards from the Democratic Alliance (DA) in municipal by-elections in the North West Province and has continued to show growth in various other municipal by-elections in Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.[10][11][12][13]

Leaders
No. Image Name Term start Term end Notes
1Constand Viljoen1 March 199426 June 2001Chief of the South African Army (1976–1980)
Chief of the South African Defence Force (1980–1985)
2Pieter Mulder26 June 200112 November 2016Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2009–2014)
3Pieter Groenewald12 November 2016[14]IncumbentMember of the National Assembly of South Africa (2001–present)
Federal Chairperson of the Freedom Front Plus (2011–2016)

Electoral performance
Results of the 2019 South African general election by voting district. Those, which the FF Plus won, are in orange

These tables show the electoral performance for the Freedom Front Plus since the advent of democracy in 1994:

National elections
Election Total votes Share of vote Seats +/- Government
1994 424,555 2.17%
9 / 400
 – in opposition
largest opposition party (1994–1996)
1999 127,217 0.80%
3 / 400
 6 in opposition
2004 139,465 0.89%
4 / 400
 1 in opposition
2009 146,796 0.83%
4 / 400
 ±0 in opposition
delivered one deputy minister
2014 165,715 0.90%
4 / 400
 ±0 in opposition
2019 414,864 2.38%
10 / 400
 6 in opposition

Provincial elections
Election[15] Eastern Cape Free State Gauteng Kwazulu-Natal Limpopo Mpumalanga North-West Northern Cape Western Cape
%Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats %Seats
1994 0.8%0/56 6.0%2/30 6.2%5/86 0.5%0/81 2.2%1/40 5.7%2/30 4.6%1/30 6.0%2/30 2.1%1/42
1999 0.3%0/63 2.1%1/30 1.3%1/73 0.2%0/80 0.7%0/49 1.7%1/30 1.4%1/33 1.7%1/30 0.4%0/42
2004 0.3%0/63 2.5%1/30 1.3%1/73 0.3%0/80 0.6%0/49 1.2%1/30 1.3%1/33 1.6%1/30 0.6%0/42
2009 0.2%0/63 2.0%1/30 1.6%1/73 0.8%0/80 0.6%0/49 0.9%0/30 1.8%0/33 1.2%0/30 0.4%0/42
2014 0.3%0/63 2.1%1/30 1.2%1/73 0.2%0/80 0.7%0/49 0.8%0/30 1.7%1/33 1.1%0/30 0.6%0/42
2019 0.6%1/63 4.0%1/30 3.6%3/73 0.3%0/80 1.4%1/49 2.4%1/30 4.3%2/33 2.7%1/30 1.6%1/42

Municipal elections
Election Ward + PR votes Share of vote
1995-96 230 845 2.7%
2000 Not released 0.1%
2006 185 960 0.9%
2011 120,519 0.5%
2016 229,281 0.8%
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See also

References
  1. "ANC holds onto power in South Africa as other parties increase vote share". Times of India. 11 May 2019.
  2. "South Africa's election: Five things we've learnt". BBC News. 11 May 2019.
  3. Magome, Mogomotsi (23 October 2019). "Leader of South Africa's leading opposition party resigns". The Associated Press. Johannesburg. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  4. Setumo Stone (22 April 2014). "FF+ to target DA's Afrikaner voting base". Business Day. Archived from the original on 14 May 2014.
  5. "Unmandated reflections - Thabo Mbeki - NEWS & ANALYSIS - Politicsweb". www.politicsweb.co.za. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016.
  6. "2014 Elections: Seats in Parliament". www.sanews.gov.za. Pretoria. 10 May 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  7. Brandt, Kevin (10 May 2019). "Targeting minorities helped grow our support - FF Plus". EWN. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  8. Mailovich, Claudi (9 May 2019). "FF Plus defies expectations". BusinessLIVE. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  9. "Orania votes for FF+". IOL. 23 April 2009. Archived from the original on 18 February 2010.
  10. Sussman, Wayne (11 July 2019). "FF+ makes loud statement in Stilfontein". The Daily Maverick. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  11. Joubert, Jan-Jan (19 September 2018). "Recent municipal ward by-elections result in losses for the DA". The Daily Maverick. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  12. "Mamusa by-election: Good news for EFF, but DA slide against FF+ continues". The Citizen. 16 January 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  13. Head, Tom (16 January 2020). "Schweizer-Reneke: DA disaster, as they lose third ward in six months to FF Plus". The South African. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  14. White, Ray. "Pieter Mulder steps down as Freedom Front Plus leader". Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  15. "Results Dashboard". www.elections.org.za. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
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