The Freedom Front was founded on 1 March 1994 by members of the Afrikaner community under Constand Viljoen, after he had left the Afrikaner Volksfront amidst disagreements. Seeking to achieve his goals through electoral means, Viljoen registered the Freedom Front with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on 4 March 1994 to take part in the April 1994 general elections (This date has also been given as 7 March).[citation needed] On 12 March 1994 Viljoen handed in a list of candidates for the FF to the IEC, confirming that his party would take part in the elections.
In the election, under the leadership of Viljoen, the Freedom Front received 2.2% of the national vote (with 424,555 votes cast), earning nine seats in the National Assembly, and 3.3% (with 639,643 votes cast) of the combined vote to the nine provincial legislatures. This suggested that many Afrikaners had split their vote. The party performed the best in the rural areas of the former Transvaal and Orange Free State, and was noted by the new deputy president Thabo Mbeki as representing possibly as much as half the Afrikaner voting population in these areas, with the strongest support among farmers and the working class.[5]
Freedom Front support gradually eroded in the coming years, as the party was strung along in ultimately fruitless negotiations with the African National Congress (ANC) to create a Volkstaat making the party lose its importance. It would also receive increased competition from new parties such as the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging. In the 1999 election their support dropped to 0.8% (127,217 votes cast) with three seats in the National Assembly and between 1 and 2% in its stronghold provinces. This represented a respectable portion of the Afrikaner vote, but nowhere near earlier levels. The party's support remained relatively stable in all national elections held during the next twenty years.[6]
In 2001, Viljoen retired and Pieter Mulder was elected as leader.[7]
Under Mulder's leadership the party's support remained relatively stable.
In the 2004 general election, support for the Freedom Front Plus rose slightly to 0.89% (139,465 votes cast). The party won one seat in most of the provincial legislatures, and four seats in the National Assembly.
In the 2006 municipal elections, the FF Plus received 1% of the popular vote (252,253 votes cast).
In the 2009 general election, the party received 0.83% (146,796 votes cast) and retained its four seats in the National Assembly but lost its seats in the provincial legislatures of North West, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape. After the elections, the FF Plus's leader Pieter Mulder was appointed as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by the new President Jacob Zuma.[8]
In the 2014 general election, the FF Plus increased its vote slightly to 0.9%. It retained its 4 MPs, and also regained a seat in the North West.[9]
The party also enjoyed consistent landslide victories in the Afrikaner enclave Orania.[10][a]
Along with other parties, the FF Plus entered into coalition with the Democratic Alliance (DA) after the 2016 municipal elections to govern Johannesburg, Tshwane and several other municipalities.
Groenewald leadership and resurgence (2016–present)
In 2016, Pieter Groenewald took over leadership of the FF Plus. He oversaw a pivot of the party away from being an exclusive abode for Afrikaners to that of one for all minorities, with a special focus on Afrikaans-speaking minorities.[11] This was highlighted when the FF Plus and the Bruin Bemagtiging Beweging (Brown Movement) – an interest group focused on Coloureds led by Peter Marais, the former premier of the Western Cape[12] – formed an official alliance.[13] This ultimately led to Marais being elected as the party's candidate for premier of the Western Cape for the 2019 elections.[14]
2019 national and provincial elections
FF Plus voter support increased substantially in the 2019 general election, with the party growing its vote total by 250,000, to 2.38% of the national vote, earning ten seats in the National Assembly. This was more than the nine seats that the old Freedom Front had received in 1994. Additionally, it gained eight seats in the provincial legislatures, for a total of eleven. In the 2014 general election, the FF Plus won seats in three provincial legislatures, in 2019, it won seats in eight out of the nine provincial legislatures. Its new supporters were largely Afrikaners and Coloured voters from the Western Cape who had previously supported the DA.[15][16]
In the run up to the 2021 local government elections, the FF Plus adopted Cape Independence as an official party position. They and CapeXit had a joint election campaign in the Western Cape to highlight the party's stance on Cape Independence. Over 60% of the FF Plus's ward councillors standing in the Western Cape were Coloureds, with Lennit Max being the party's candidate for mayor of Cape Town.[21] The party claims that their candidates are selected purely on merit in contrast to the DA.[22]
The FF Plus continued their gains in the Western Cape as a result, being in the kingmaker position in over 6 districts.[23] In 2022, FF Plus member Manicks Mpunwana became a city councilor in Bela-Bela, becoming the first black South African to serve as a councilor from the FF Plus.[24]
2024 election and Government of National Unity
In the 2024 general election, the FF Plus gave up many of the gains it had previously made against the DA, winning only six seats in Parliament (National Assembly) with 1.36% of the vote.[25] In June 2024, Freedom Front Plus agreed to join the ANC-led government of national unity (GNU) also known as the Third Cabinet of Cyril Ramaphosa. The leader of the FF Plus, Pieter Groenewald, became Minister of Correctional Services in the new Cabinet.[26] Following Groenewald's appointment, leadership changes occurred in the party's parliamentary caucus which saw Corné Mulder succeed Groenewald as parliamentary leader and Wouter Wessels succeed Mulder as chief whip.[27]
On 22 February 2025, Mulder was elected unopposed to succeed Groenewald as party leader after the latter chose not to seek re-election.[28] However, Groenewald remained in his ministerial position.[29]
The party supports greater self-determination for Afrikaner and Coloured Afrikaans-speaking communities throughout South Africa, and has adopted Cape independence as an official party position.[59] In this regard, the party has put forward legislation in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament (known as the Western Cape People's Bill) calling for a recognition of Western Cape self-determination.[60]
Foreign policy
The party is critical of what it regards as South Africa's contradictory foreign policy under the governing African National Congress (ANC).[61] The FF Plus supports the strengthening of relations with countries that "promote self-determination within their own borders",[61] as well as countries with whom South Africa has strong existing trade ties.[61] The party has called on South Africa to criticize the Russian invasion of Ukraine and condemn Russia's actions.[62][63] During the Gaza war, the party expressed support for Israel.[64]
^From 2024, seats in the National Assembly are determined by a combination of the national ballot, and the nine regional ballots. Only the national ballot figures are shown here.
^Bertus de Villiers; Joseph Marko; Francesco Palermo; Sergiu Constantin, eds. (2021). Litigating the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Domestic and International Courts. Brill. p. 60. ISBN978-90044-6166-6. As a political force the Afrikaans community in the 2019 general election principally supported two political parties at a national level, the centrist Democratic Alliance and the conservative Freedom Front Plus (Saba 2019).
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