New Republic Party (South Africa)
New Republic Party Nuwe Republiekparty ( Afrikaans) | |
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Leader | Sir de Villiers Graaff (interim) Radclyffe Cadman Vause Raw Bill Sutton |
Founded | 1977 |
Dissolved | 1988 |
Merger of | United Party Democratic Party |
Merged into | Democratic Party |
Succeeded by | Independent Party |
Ideology | Conservatism Power sharing Pro-Commonwealth |
Political position | Centre-right |
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The New Republic Party (NRP) was a South African political party. It was formed as the successor to the disbanded United Party (UP) in 1977 and as a merger with the smaller Democratic Party. It drew its support mainly from the then Province of Natal, and tried to strike a moderate course between the apartheid policy of the ruling National Party (NP) and the liberal policies of the Progressive Federal Party (PFP).[citation needed]
Background
The United Party had been the main opposition in the House of Assembly since it lost power in the 1948 election, but it was severely weakened by a split in 1975. To gain new support, the UP then merged with the Democratic Party to form the New Republic Party in 1977. After the UP wound up, the last UP leader, Sir de Villiers Graaff served as the interim national leader of the new party, with Radclyffe Cadman as parliamentary leader. Before the 1977 election, Graaff resigned and Cadman became the national leader.[citation needed]
However, a significant number of UP parliamentarians refused to remain with the new party; some joined the anti-apartheid PFP, and six were expelled and formed the centrist
Election results
The
Raw discredited the party in a string of by-election defeats from 1977 to 1980, by making "extravagant" claims of support and predicting victory in areas where the party had no prospects. In fact, the NRP would win just two by-elections during its eleven-year existence: a provincial council seat in Natal, South Coast in July 1979, and another in East London in October 1980.[3]
In August 1980, Raw announced that the party was "broke" outside of Natal.
In 1984, Raw was replaced as leader by Bill Sutton. However, the NP's shift towards reform in the early 1980s under the leadership of
Sutton retained his seat until the 1989 election.[citation needed]
Platform and dissolution
The anti-apartheid PFP considered the NRP "thoroughly racist",[5] and the two parties "declared war" on each other. After the NRP stepped down from a by-election, which the NP subsequently won, the PFP accused the NRP of dealing with the NP in order to defeat their common enemy, the PFP.[3]
The primary policy of the NRP was to introduce a multi-chambered parliament, with a chamber each for whites, coloureds, Indians, and urban blacks. However, in 1982 the Nationalist government announced plans for a
It disbanded in 1988. On dissolving the NRP, Sutton recommended that party members throw their support to the Independent Party of Denis Worrall. The IP and other NRP remnants would later merge with the PFP to form the Democratic Party, which later became the Democratic Alliance.[citation needed]