FF+ leader bows out of top job
PIETER Mulder stepped down as leader of the Freedom Front Plus during the party’s congress in Kempton Park yesterday.
Mulder, 65, who served as deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in President Jacob Zuma’s administration between 2009 and 2014, had led the FF Plus since 2001.
He first entered parliament in 1988 as MP for Schweizer-Reneke, representing the Conservative Party, which provided a home to right-wing whites opposed to the granting of the vote to black South Africans.
On the eve of the 1994 elections, right- wingers organised themselves into the Freedom Front led by General Constand Viljoen, and Mulder was one of seven MPs elected to represent the party.
In the 1999 elections the party’s fortunes slipped somewhat, and only three MPs were elected under its banner: Viljoen, Mulder and his brother Corné, who remains an MP.
In 2003 Mulder led the FF’s amalgamation with the Conservative Party — a merger in which the “Plus” was added to the party’s name. Its share of parliamentary seats increased to four in the 2004 election.
That number remained stable at four seats through the 2009 and 2014 elections, making the FF Plus the sixth-largest party in parliament.
Yesterday, Mulder said he did not intend to participate in the 2019 election, and for that reason it was only fair to give a new leader the opportunity to establish themselves leading up to the election in 2019.
He has been in parliament for an uninterrupted 28 years since being elected for the first time in March 1988. This makes him the MP with the longest continuous service in the current parliament.
According to Mulder, who is still an MP, the party is well established, with branches and structures in all provinces. The FF Plus doubled its support in the 2016 local elections with councillors in all nine provinces.
The party’s national chairman, Pieter Groenewald, was yesterday elected as its new leader. The new chairman is Anton Alberts.