The Freedom Front Plus on Wednesday disputed suggestions that Afrikaners and other minorities should give up their own identities to protect their rights and achieve their ideals.

Former National Party MP and Democratic Alliance member Nick Koornhof's statement that Afrikaners should not isolate themselves politically by joining parties such as the FF Plus and should rather become members of parties such as the Congress of the People (Cope), was ill-advised and naïve, FF Plus Chief Whip Corne Mulder said.

"Just as 'Coke Light' is still Coke, Mr [Terror] Lekota's party is still the ANC," he said.

If Lekota had had the choice to keep the name ANC for his new party, he would have done so.

"Cope is in essence the new 'ANC Light' because Lekota has not deviated from any of the principles of the ANC of which he had until recently been a prominent member," Mulder said.

The heart of ANC policy was the Freedom Charter. Lekota was now claiming that Cope was the true protector of the Freedom Charter, rather than the ANC.

Cope's policies were still unknown and until it revealed and implemented them, Lekota and his new party remained the "ANC Light".

"Mr Koornhof is therefore trying to get Afrikaners to join the ANC Light", Mulder said.

In the new South Africa, the real opposition could be nothing other than a party whose leadership and supporters were black.

"This is what Cope is striving for and Koornhof should realise this and be honest about it before he urges Afrikaners to become part of the new ANC Light."

It was an accepted fact that Afrikaners and other minorities could not achieve their objectives in isolation.
"It is however not necessary for Afrikaners and other minorities to give up their own identities to protect their rights and achieve their ideals.

"Groups can achieve their objectives through sensible co-operation with each other. This is why it is not necessary for Afrikaners to join the ANC or the ANC Light," he said.

The FF Plus had repeatedly proven that the party and its supporters did not exist and function in isolation.

"We, however, achieve our goals without being swallowed up by other parties who do not have our interests at heart.

"The FF Plus has also never given up its own identity or principles just to become part of a larger opposition party which opposes the ANC," Mulder said.