YEARS AGO

As bigger parties begin to poach the liberal-democratic policies of the Democratic Party, its members and supporters are migrating to other political pastures.

For many DP members and MPs, the choice is between remaining part of an independent party that may become little more than a pressure group, or trying to preserve the party’s liberal values by joining and trying to influence dominant parties.

A senior DP member showed the way last October: former Western Cape regional chairperson Bill Sewell quit the party to join the ANC, and is now on the steering committee directing the ANC’s election campaign for constituent assembly elections in the region. Sewell said he believed the ANC was the only vehicle for a genuine nonracial democracy. —

April 16 to 23 1992