Prominent attorney wants to run South Africa’s capital city

Well-known attorney Willie Spies will re-enter the world of politics after over 15 years to run as the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) mayoral candidate for Tshwane. 

Announcing the candidate on Sunday, 14 February, party leader Dr Corné Mulder said Spies’ campaign will be led by the FF+’s Grandi Theunissen, an experienced councillor.

Spies was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the FF+ from 2004 to 2009, but left the party to pursue his career as an advocate.

He has since formed his own law firm and represented civil society organisation Afriforum in numerous high-profile cases. 

Spies said it was an emotional experience to walk back into the FF+ building after 16 years. He said his hopes are realistic and that he plans to champion collaboration between sectors. 

He said 16 years ago, he was privy to a conversation between Afriforum CEO Kallie Kriel and anti-apartheid activist and politician Mamphela Ramphele, along with other key figures. 

It was decided during this meeting, which was intended to plan for the future, that the only way to save South Africa was to “walk together”.

Spies said that not only is his campaign evidence of civil society and politics collaborating to “walk a path toward the future together”, but that this is key to his plans to improve the City of Tshwane. 

“He believes in collaboration between politicians, the business sector, civil organisations and the public can achieve what seems almost impossible – resurrecting the metro from the ashes,” said Mulder.

An illustrious legal career

Spies has lived in Tshwane for 50 years. After completing his law degree at the University of Pretoria, he entered politics as an MP.

However, he would go on to use his qualifications when he started his own law firm, Hurter Spies, in 2008 alongside Johan Hurter, who was a senior partner at a prominent law firm in Tshwane. 

The firm quickly gained a name for itself in February 2009, when Spies and Hurter won a case at the North Gauteng High Court and the Constitutional Court, which ensured that South Africans overseas would be able to vote in national elections. 

For a while, Spies juggled the responsibilities of an MP with those of a high-profile attorney, but in 2009, he decided to take a particular focus on civil rights litigation, with Afriforum as his most prominent client.

He left politics behind, even as he was reelected as an MP in April 2009 and maintained a keen interest in the political sphere. 

Spies represented Afriforum in the 2010 case against Julius Malema, in which the organisation was pushing to have the singing of the song “Kill the Boer” declared hate speech.

This was while Malema was ANC Youth League President. The ruling carried no criminal penalty, but Malema was required to pay legal costs, and the singing of the song was deemed hate speech. 

Additionally, Spies represented several Zimbabwean white farmers who had been dispossessed of their land in 2009. 

He represented nearly 80 white farmers who had launched a case with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal, saying they were targeted due to their race. 

The tribunal, which was later disbanded, ruled that farmers should be compensated. Zimbabwe rejected the verdict, but Afriforum pushed to have it applied locally.

The attorney has continued in his push against the dispossession of land as an advocate against expropriation without compensation in South Africa.

Spies went on to represent Afriforum in a case from 2013 to 2016 to prohibit the City of Tshwane from renaming streets associated with colonial and apartheid history. 

The case escalated to the Constitutional Court, but the interdict on name-changing was ultimately set aside.

Returning to politics 16 years later to ‘save’ Tshwane

Spies’ ties to South Africa’s capital city are also evident in his dedication to Pretoria FM. He has served as chairman of the local radio station’s board for over 14 years. 

According to Pretoria FM’s executive director, James Kemp, Spies played a vital role at the radio station, establishing a sustainable business model.

He said the station’s income from airtime sales increased by almost 300% during the time Spies was involved. 

He will step down as chairman to focus solely on his mayoral campaign and the FF+. However, the radio station said Spies would still serve as its legal representative. 

“The Freedom Front Plus has no doubt that Willie is the ideal candidate for Tshwane, precisely because he knows and understands the metro’s unique challenges from personal experience,” Mulder said. 

“He shares the frustration of residents who pay taxes, but receive no value or services in return.”

Spies said his campaign will focus on addressing the practical problems stemming from maladministration, corruption and incompetence, including power outages, water crises, crumbling infrastructure and collapsing service delivery.

Tshwane is a key strategic hub for the FF+, being the location of the party’s headquarters. “Pretoria deserves better than the current decline, and by joining hands with the Freedom Front Plus, it can be done,” Mulder said.