The New Labour Party (NLP) was a minor

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

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

founded by

Peter Marais Petrus Jacobus "Peter" Marais (born 4 September 1948) is a South African politician who is currently serving as a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. He previously served as the inaugural Mayor of Cape Town from 2000 until his dis ...

via floor crossing legislation after he left the New National Party in some disrepute. The name was chosen to evoke the former Labour Party led by the Reverend

Allan Hendrickse Helenard Joe Hendrickse (22 October 1927 – 16 March 2005), popularly known as Allan Hendrickse, was a South African politician, Congregationalist minister and teacher. He participated in an act of defiance by swimming at a South African beach ...

as an anti-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

Coloured party. The NLP sought to position itself as the political voice of Coloured people, particularly in the

Western Cape Province 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 2020 ...

, but without success. The party won only 0.09% of the vote in the 2004 nationwide election and 0.67% in the simultaneous election to the

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 2020 ...

legislature. It did not contest the 2009 election, instead supporting the formation of a new party, the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA), along with a number of other parties. The CDA failed to win a seat.

References

Labour parties Political parties in South Africa created by floor crossing Defunct political parties in South Africa Political parties disestablished in 2009 {{SouthAfrica-party-stub