Peter Marais: Why the Freedom Front Plus

After numerous probing conversations with the leadership of the FF Plus as well as the subsequent assent given by the entire executive committee of the Bruin Belange Beweging (BBB), I decided to make myself available as candidate for the FF Plus in the Western Cape in the upcoming elections.

The FF Plus's national and provincial structures then nominated me as the Premier Candidate for the province in accordance with the required procedure.

My nomination as Premier Candidate is an honour and offers me the opportunity to pursue and ultimately achieve the ideals and goals that I am committed to.

Over the last ten years, since I resigned from politics in 2004, coloured as well as white people have frequently asked me to consider actively re-entering the political arena. It was a difficult decision to make seeing as I wanted to focus all my time and attention on my family after more than forty years in politics.

However, after having to defend coloured people's grievances in court time and again over the course of the last six years simply because no one else was willing to do it, I finally decided to return to politics.

With the backing of the BBB, we are committed to furthering the FF Plus's policy of self-determination for all minority groups – people who share a common cultural and language heritage within a specific region or province as defined in sections 235, 9, 30, 31 and 185 of South Africa's Constitution.

We do not view the BBB's preference for federalism as entirely contradictory to the FF Plus's policy of confederalism, but merely as a different interpretation of self-determination. Clarity on the matter will ultimately only be provided by national legislation.

The BBB will retain its own identity, as a pressure group for the protection of coloured people's rights, so as to add more momentum to the protection of the Afrikaans language and minority rights in general. It also links with the FF Plus's views and policy that communities must join hands to protect and promote the rights of minority groups.

This relationship between the BBB and the FF Plus is in many ways making history and it is not written in ink, but I am convinced that it is engraved on the chests of many Afrikaans people whose hearts beat to the same rhythm. The second great trek to unity among all Afrikaans people is already under way.

And that is why I need to return to politics. To fight for Afrikaans, for self-determination and for Christian values in our very own Cape province alongside the FF Plus, the only party that is committed to these values and goals.

Statement issued by Mr. Peter Marais, FF Plus Premier Candidate: Western Cape, 22 January 2019