Apartheid's National Party voted into oblivion

Farewell to the architects of the world's most-loathed racist state

The National Party was once proud and powerful, ruling apartheid South Africa with a whip in one hand, a Bible in the other. This week it stumbled towards the political wilderness, deserted by its supporters and led by a chubby-faced academic known derisively as "kortbroek" (short pants).

With 95 per cent of votes counted in the third democratic election, support for the New National Party (NNP) - its post-apartheid reincarnation - had crumbled to 1.7 per cent, an ignominious slide from 20 per cent in 1994 and 7 per cent in 1999.

In contrast, the African National Congresssurged towards its most decisive victory yet. President Thabo Mbeki's party won 69 per cent of votes, leaving its nearest opponent, the Democratic Alliance, with 13 per cent. The crestfallen NNP leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said he remained "absolutely committed" to his party's approach. But traditional NNP voters were not so certain. The NNP haemorrhaged votes to the white-led Democratic Alliance, the emerging opposition star Patricia de Lille, and a right-wing Afrikaner party.

Mr Van Schalkwyk garners little of the fear-tinged respect afforded to National Party giants such as Hendrik Verwoerd and PW Botha. He tried to refashion the NNP as the "party that ended apartheid". Few believed him.

After coming to power in 1948 the National Party built a racist state unparalleled anywhere in the world.

"They propagated the idea that we were a God-elected people," said Sampie Terreblanche, a retired economics professor and former member of the Broederbond, an Afrikaner secret society.

Today the NNP represents a sliver of the three million Afrikaners. Ironically, the party's last political friend is the ANC. Until this week the parties ruled Western Cape province in coalition. But for the party's core voters the deal was an unforgivable betrayal.

According to Mr Terreblanche, the NNP "will disband before the next election. It is too besmirched by apartheid. It's a miracle it lasted this long." Yet it may be too early to write the obituary. The NNP's slim vote may lead to a second coalition with the ANC in Western Cape, albeit as a greatly diminished partner. If so the party of apartheid may hobble on, its survival dependent on the black party it once sought to destroy.