FF Plus says governance agreement with ANC includes the protection of Orania

JOHANNESBURG - The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) says its co-governing agreement with the African National Congress (ANC) includes the protection of Orania and other similar communities in the Northern Cape.

The Northern Cape is one of three provinces that did not produce an outright winner from the recent general elections.

The ANC, after receiving 49% in the province, got into a co-governing agreement with the FF Plus which has seen Zamani Saul re-elected as Premier.

The white-only, Afrikaaner nationalist town of Orania has divided opinion for many years.

During the election campaign, several ANC leaders promised to dismantle it, saying it went against the spirit of South Africa’s rainbow nation.

However, FF Plus head of elections Wouter Wessels says the party argued against this in its discussions with the Northern Cape ANC.

“In the Northern Cape, we reached an agreement to not form a coalition with the ANC but to form a working relationship where it includes the promotion of the constitutional right to self-determination, in the form of certain agreements with Orania and also other agreements with regards to all communities in the Northern Cape and their right to self-determination.”

Wessels said another part of the agreement included public-private partnerships to provide infrastructure development in the Northern Cape.