VF+ leader says the party is attracting more black voters

Leader of the Freedom Front Plus (VF+), Dr Corné Mulder, says that the party has been inundated with the influx of new, black members.

Speaking to Mike Sham on an episode of the State of the Nation, Mulder said that the party has seen a recent wave of growing support from diverse South African communities, including black voters, despite historically being seen as championing white, minority rights. 

“We have been inundated with new members applying to become members of the party from all kinds of communities, including black South Africans,” he said. 

Mulder credits this growing support to his belief that the majority of South Africans share the same conservative values that the VF+ has long held. 

The VF+ was formed in 1994, as the Freedom Front, by retired general Constand Viljoen, who broke away from the more hardline Afrikaner Volkfront, which opposed participating in South Africa’s first democratic elections. 

The party traditionally advocated for Afrikaaner self-determination, and came out as the fourth-largest party in the 1994 elections, attaining nine seats in the National Assembly.

It merged with the Conservative Party and the Afrikaaner Eenheidsbeweging to form the Freedom Front Plus in 2003.

The party then evolved from advocating for an Afrikaaner homeland to championing Afrikaans minority rights and cultural preservation.

The 2024 general elections were a setback for the party, as it lost four parliamentary seats and ended up with six MPs. Their support sat at around 1.36%, down from 2.38% in 2019.

However, the party believes that they are turning this around, now attracting a wider-range of constituincies.

When questioned about how the party has attracted a diverse population of voters after traditionally championing minority rights, Mulder responded that South Africa is a country of minorities. 

“We are very diverse, with all different languages, cultures, etc., and we need to accommodate the different realities,” he said.

He said that the VF Plus has grown a larger support base because these diverse groups support the party’s values and mission.

“We’ve said all along, this is what the party stands for. This is what we would like to put on the table,” he said.

He added that every political party has principles and values, and communities are coming forward to support this. 

“If you look at the political spectrum, the Freedom Front Plus is right off centre. I think there’s a huge gap between the ANC’s, with all due respect, socialism, and the Democratic Party’s liberalism,” he explained. 

Growing support for VF+ Minister Pieter Groenewald

Mulder added that he belives that all South Africans ultimately want the same things: a country that works, infrastructure that you can depend on, security, jobs and a brighter future.

He says the VF+ plays into this approach. 

“I want to believe that the majority of South Africans from all communities are, in their hearts, conservative people, thinking in terms of conservative values, and they want to be in that space,” he said. 

The growing support for the VF+ was most recently illustrated during a by-election in Centurion, where the party narrowly lost out to the DA in what was previously the blue party’s stronghold. 

The DA’s support dropped from 59% to 53%, narrowly holding onto the ward, while the FF Plus’s support increased from 16% to 44%.

The FF Plus came within about 250 votes of taking over the ward. This was a significant increase in votes from 16.11% in the 2021 local elections.

Some of this growing support from a black voter base, Mulder credits to an unofficial campaign, not associated with the party, for Minister of Correctional Services and VF+ former leader Pieter Groenewald to be president of the country. 

Social media posts and electronic flyers have been shared around the internet with the words: “Pieter Groenewald for President.”

Mulder explained that this is not an official party strategy, but a spontaneous call from South Africans, many of them black.

Mulder said he believes that there is an outcry in the public sphere for law and order and discipline, which has led to this support for the Correctional Services Minister. 

“That is the perception around Pieter Groenewald at the moment,” he said. This comes from his work in Correctional Services, working to rehabilitate convicts and improve the prison system. 

However, Mulder emphasised, even before the unofficial campaign for Groenewald was launched, support from black voters was already on the rise.  

“This doesn’t just come out of the blue. It’s the fact that the Freedom Front Plus has delivered on something,” he said.