ABSTRACT
This account interrogates the debate about democratic consolidation in South Africa with particular reference to the role of ‘white’ opposition parties. It is informed, first, by a view that considers the dominant parliamentary opposition in South Africa to be representing white minority interests; secondly, by a view that sees the South African transition as a simultaneous transition from both authoritarian rule and settler colonialism; thirdly, by the argument that the criteria by which the ‘consolidation’ of democracy is to be assessed are inherently judgemental; and finally, by David Beetham’s comprehensive definition that ‘a democracy can best be said to be consolidated when we have good reason to believe that it is capable of withstanding pressures or shocks without abandoning the electoral process or the political freedoms on which it depends, including those of dissent and opposition’. The argument is that the dominant parliamentary opposition to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is rooted in traditional, white electoral politics, and is, in essence, a political expression of the tendency in African post-settler transitions for whites to see themselves an undifferentiated and endangered interest group.
