AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel cleared the rumours with IOL that they would not launch a political party.
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Despite them tapping into a political space, AfriForum has clarified that it will not form a political party because its ambitions were higher than party politics.
The CEO Kallie Kriel cleared the rumours with IOL that they would not launch a political party.
"No, our aspirations are higher than that and we believe it's in the interest of democracy and the people of this country that we also have a strong civil society, and that party politics is not everything," he said.
The speculation came after the former AfriForum deputy CEO Ernst Roets recently launched the Pioneer Initiative, a think tank that is purportedly aiming towards a 'more sustainable political dispensation for South Africa'.
Many believed that AfriForum would be linked to the initiative but Roets and Kriel both confirmed to IOL that the initiative was not linked to each other.
"Pioneer Initiative is independent and not linked to AfriForum," Kriel said.
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Kriel further mentioned that they would work from the ground and ensure that people's concerns were addressed rather than fighting in Parliament.
"So, we will continue to work on a grass-roots level and set up self-help projects, working on a local level, with all communities, rather than being part of the politically elite fighting in parliamentary sessions and nothing happening on the ground," he added.
Here is why AfriForum forming a political party will not be a surprise
The non-governmental group which mainly focuses on the interests of Afrikaners, has been involved in politics more than it is as a civic organisation.
Many of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Freedom Front (FF+), and Patriotic Alliance (PA) voters are mostly from AfriForum.
They have always called for the DA and FF+ to not prioritise the views of ANC, EFF as well as the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, especially in Parliament.
Their recent controversial stance on the Expropriation Act proved that going into politics for them would not be a challenge.
They took the government head-on over the matter.
Speaking to IOL, political analyst Professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast said AfriForum has a constituency that they claim to be fighting for, which is the Afrikaners.
Breakfast said it would still be interesting for them to form a political party because of their constituency.
According to him, the only reason for the party formation would be because AfriForum thinks that there is a sidelining of the Afrikaans-speaking people.
"It would be interesting if they establish a whole party, not to say that one is ruling out that because you have political parties that are catering for that constituency like Freedom Front...
"The DA is liberal; more English, of course it might cater for this and that section of the population as well besides the English-speaking population. But the DA is, I mean historically, it has always been an English party," he said.
But Breakfast stated that the country needed to overcome the unevenness and inequality because resources, especially the means of production, were still controlled by whites.
“If you look at the people who own the means of production, it's the white people, the Afrikaans-speaking people are included in that.
“If you look at the people in the commanding heights of the economy, if you look at people in the agricultural sector, it's the white people, the Afrikaans speaking people in the main, people in the financial sector, they are dominant in there,” he said.
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