The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus; af, Vryheidsfront Plus, ''VF Plus'') is a right-wing political party in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Pieter Groenewald. Its current stated policy positions include abolishing affirmative action, replacing it with merit based appointments, and being firmly against the proposed expropriation without compensation land reform movement to protect the rights and interests of minorities, especially Afrikaners and Afrikaans speaking

Coloureds Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. Sou ...

. The party also supports greater self-determination for minorities throughout South Africa, and expressly has adopted

Cape Independence Cape independence (Afrikaans: ''Kaapse Onafhanklikheid''; isiXhosa: ''Inkululeko yaseKapa'') – also known by the portmanteau CapeXit – is the political movement to make the Western Cape province, and often other regions of the Eastern and N ...

as an official party position.

History

Origins as the Freedom Front (19942003)

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 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 The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

, 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. 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 The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(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 Pieter Willem Adriaan Mulder (born 26 July 1951) is a South African politician and the former leader of the Freedom Front Plus. He served as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Cabinet of President Jacob Zuma from ...

Formation of the FF+ and early years (20032016)

In 2003, shortly before the 2004 general election, the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, 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 The Federal Alliance (Afrikaans: ''Federale Alliansie'') was a small South African political party that contested the South African general election in 1999. The party was led by business magnate Louis Luyt, and founded in 1998. They later joined ...

joined the VF+/FF+. Under Mulder's leadership the party's support remained relatively stable. 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. The party also enjoyed consistent landslide victories in the Afrikaner enclave Orania. Along with other parties, the FF Plus entered into coalition with the Democratic Alliance (DA) after the 2016 municipal elections to govern

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, Tshwane and several other municipalities.

Groenewald leadership and resurgence (2016present)

In 2016 Pieter Groenewald took over leadership of the FF Plus. He oversaw a pivot of the party away from being an exclusive abode for Afrikaners to that of one for all minorities, with a special focus on Afrikaans-speaking minorities. This was highlighted when the FF Plus and the Bruin Bemagtiging Beweging (Brown Movement) an interest group focused on Coloureds led by Peter Marais, the former premier of the Western Cape formed an official alliance. This ultimately led to Marais being elected as the party's candidate for premier of the Western Cape for the 2019 elections.

2019 national and provincial elections

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 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 total of eleven. In the 2014 general election, the FF Plus won seats in three provincial legislatures, in 2019, it 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. 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.

2021 municipal elections

In the run up to the 2021 local government elections, the FF Plus adopted

as an official party position. They and CapeXit had a joint election campaign in the Western Cape to highlight the party's stance on Cape Independence. Over 60% of the FF Plus's ward councillors standing in the Western Cape were Coloureds, with Lennit Max being the party's candidate for mayor of Cape Town. The party claims that their candidates are selected purely on merit in contrast to the DA. The FF Plus continued their gains in the Western Cape as a result, being in the kingmaker position in over 6 districts.

Leaders

Electoral performance

South Africa national election 2019 winner by VD

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 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, 424,555 , 2.17% , , – , , - !

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, 127,217 , 0.80% , , 6 , , - ! 2004 , 139,465 , 0.89% , , 1 , , - ! 2009 , 146,796 , 0.83% , , ±0 , , - !

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

, 165,715 , 0.90% , , ±0 , , - ! 2019 , 414,864 , 2.38% , , 6 ,

Provincial elections

! rowspan=2 , Election ! colspan=2 , Eastern Cape ! colspan=2 , Free State ! colspan=2 ,

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

! colspan=2 , Kwazulu-Natal ! colspan=2 ,

Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature ...

! colspan=2 , Mpumalanga ! colspan=2 , North-West ! colspan=2 , Northern Cape ! colspan=2 ,

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 202 ...

, - ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats , - !

, 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 , - !

, 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 , - !

, 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 , , 0.1% , - ! 2006 , 185 960 , 0.9% , - ! 2011 , 120,519 , 0.5% , - ! 2016 , 229,281 , 0.8% , - ! 2021 , 549,349 , 2.34% , -

References

External links

* *
SA TalentUnrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation
{{Authority control Articles containing Afrikaans-language text 1994 establishments in South Africa Afrikaner nationalism Afrikaner organizations Boer nationalism Conservative parties in South Africa Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization Nationalist parties in South Africa Political parties established in 1994 Political parties in South Africa Political parties of minorities Separatism in South Africa White nationalist parties Protestant political parties Social conservative parties National conservative parties Right-wing populist parties