Below is a statement by Freedom Front Plus:

The “new South Africa” which came into being in 1994, has failed due to affirmative action, job-losses as a result of transformation, marginalisation of minorities, poor service delivery, poor management, incompetence, cadre deployment, nepotism, political appointments, lust for power, abuse of power, corruption, fraud, self-enrichment, cover-ups, incompetence, crime, farm murders, populism and ideological obsessiveness.

Everyone in South Africa, apart from the ANC’s inner circle who has been advantaged by it, wants a country without these features.

What is the whole truth about South Africa?

The truth is that we have a very diverse country.

South Africa is a nation of more than 50 million individuals but also one of many communities, minorities and peoples. Eleven official languages, 31 cultures different religions etc. who, through the course of history, ended up together in South Africa.

The correct point of departure is that South Africa should be a community of happy communities and of happy individuals.

We urgently need a dispensation in which recognition is given, not only to the individuals in our country, but also to the communities, the minorities and diversity of South Africa as the real building blocks of true unity in diversity. A dispensation built on respect for each other, without discrimination and racism, with equal opportunities, but with recognition of each one’s own, as well as the commonality. This is the whole truth about South Africa. As is the case elsewhere in the world, this approach is not in conflict with a constitutional or liberal democracy. To the contrary, it is described as the latest and most modern of constitutional trends.

That is why Federalism, locality, subsidiarity and self-determination, as it is practiced internationally, should be essential building blocks of such a constitutional dispensation.

Against this background, the FF Plus has re-worded its mission. A mission which is realistic and reflects the correct and whole truth about South Africa.

The FF Plus’ new mission wishes to establish a dream and an ideal which will motivate and inspire not only Afrikaners but also other minorities, groups and as many South Africans as is possible.

Against this background, we have, since the re-launch of the FF Plus at the end of August last year [2013], reached out to Afrikaans speaking people in other political parties, Afrikaans speakers in cultural organisations as well as other minorities in South Africa.

The very successful conference on minority rights the FF Plus hosted last November [2013] in Parliament formed part of this outreach.

Two international experts on minority rights and various prominent academics of South Africa presented papers during the conference. We also created the opportunity in this manner for other minority groups to raise their issues and explain why they feel alienated in the so-called “new South Africa”. Some of these groups, like the Khoi and San also attended the launch of our manifesto in Pretoria and conveyed a message to the FF Plus.

What you are seeing in front of you today is the result of that re-launch and reaching out to others by the FF Plus. These candidates come from the ranks of the FF plus but also from other political parties and from the broader cultural community.

In total the FF Plus, have drafted 415 candidates on national level and in all nine provinces. Only 13 parties will be participating on a national level as well as on a provincial level in all nine provinces.

We are providing the names and an abbreviated CV of the first 25 candidates on our national list here today. Some of the 25 candidates are present here today. I gladly introduce them to you:

Just amongst the first ten members on the Freedom Front Plus’ national candidate’s list, the party can boast with more than a hundred years of formal experience in South Africa’s politics on a parliamentary level. If the second and third tiers of government are added, it amounts to more than 150 years.

Of the first 25 candidates, 10 or 40% have parliamentary or legislature experience. This ensures continuity. Of the first 25, 13 or more than 50% have local government experience as councillors. But there also has to be renewal and that is why, for example, our national youth leader, Wouter Wessels is nr. 4, the Free State youth leader, Ms. Tammy Breedt is nr. 16 and the previous youth leader, Mr. Jan van Niekerk is 25th on the list.

Academic qualifications aren’t everything but we challenge any other party to beat us at this. More than 50% of the FF Plus’ candidates are graduates. Of the first ten candidates, five have doctorate degrees.

On the list are agricultural specialists, such as Dr. Lourie Bosman and Werner Weber; legal practitioners and lawyers such as Mr. Pieter Vorster and Dr. Corné Mulder; communication and cultural specialists such as Mr. Niekie van den Berg and myself; defence and intelligence specialists such as Mr. Pieter Groenewald and Mr. Theo Coetzee who is also an expert in the financial field and specifically credit management; Mr. André Fourie who was minister of regional and land affairs; Adv. Anton Alberts who has been managing the Transnet pensioner’s case and we can continue like this. But look at the abbreviated CV’s.

I am as leader very proud of this champion team who offer prospective voters so much practical experience in so many fields as a winning team.

This experience and skill, coupled with the enthusiasm and fresh thinking of its younger members, are being applied with to show that the FF Plus is not only relevant in a changing South Africa, but that the party takes the lead in many areas to offer answers and solutions, especially where the rights of minorities are at stake.

The FF Plus knows that it has a winning team with the right solutions and answers to make South Africa a safe home for all its residents together with the assistance of all the other role-players in the Collective for Democracy.