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African National Congress

Mixed-Race Voters in South Africa's Western Cape Province Foster a Path to White Power

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Mixed-race voters, making up 54 percent of the electorate in South Africa's Western Cape Province, are rapidly eroding their nonwhite solidarity by turning against the African National Congress (ANC) under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. The erosion of nonwhite solidarity is fueled by the National Party's (NP) strategic campaign to play on the fears of mixed-race voters about losing their job and housing advantages over blacks, derived from the apartheid system in which some mixed-race leaders were complicit. This campaign is driven by NP warnings that blacks have failed at governance across Africa and that a previously outlawed alliance of whites with mixed-race voters is necessary to avoid black dominance and chaos.

Key Takeaways:

  • The National Party's campaign in the Western Cape Province is driven by low-road tactics, including racial fear-mongering and appeals to the ingrained success of apartheid.
  • Mixed-race voters, making up 54 percent of the electorate, are being targeted by the National Party to turn against blacks and support the incumbent party.
  • The African National Congress's challenger to Hernus Kriel, the current Minister of Law and Order and a candidate for Prime Minister of the new Western Cape Province, is Allan Boesak, an articulate mixed-race politician and former cleric who is struggling to resonate with the mixed-race electorate.
  • The National Party's history of political machinations has raised concerns among mixed-race workers in the African National Congress that white strategists may have arranged the influx of black squatters into a mixed-race area, serving to dramatize mixed-race fears of losing out under a black-led government.
  • Some mixed-race families are providing neighborly help to the black squatters, even as others denounce them at Kriel rallies.

Statistics:

  • Mixed-race voters make up 54 percent of the electorate in the Western Cape Province (pg. A10).
  • Whites make up 28 percent of the Western Cape's population and blacks 17 percent (pg. A10).
  • The African National Congress's campaign is facing an uphill battle in the Western Cape Province, with available sample polls suggesting a National Party victory (pg. A10).

Sources:

  • "A South African Gesture," The New York Times, April 16, 1994, A1.
  • "South Africans Heed Call to Vote," The New York Times, April 16, 1994, A10.
  • Roger Bosch for The New York Times, "National Party supporter," April 16, 1994. (pg. A6)

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