could afford.
It must be understood that many of us had full time jobs as well, so this electioneering was a part time affair. I spent a lot of time writing press releases, pamphlets and placing adverts in newspapers. Our budget had to be kept in mind so we concentrated on the small local independent newspapers, building up good relationships with them all. The opposition was very helpful here due to their arrogance, and the fact that their member of parliament hadn’t been seen in the area since the previous election.
Peter, the then editor of the Hillbrow Herald, was a regular visitor to our offices, assisting us in the wording of advertisements, giving general advice, and also getting information which he used for what we considered as relatively fair write-ups, we were not totally adverse to public criticism.
The other newspaper we used extensively was “Exit”. This paper was owned, published and edited by homosexuals for the gay community, which made up a large percentage of the inhabitants of Hillbrow. As most of us campaigning for Leon were residents of the suburb, we knew many, and considered some as friends, in this community, as our paths crossed daily, and there was thus no animosity between us. Leon, being a politician, quickly realized the value of this potentially block vote, and went on a charm offensive, undertaking to be a voice for the gay community as well, if he got into parliament. I do believe he was genuine in his promises to the gay people.
This canvassing of the gay vote got us into trouble with the leaders of the National Party. After our 3rd or 4th advertisement appeared in Exit I got a phone call from Mr. “F”, then the leader of the National Party in the Transvaal Province, later to follow Mr. “P” as president of the Republic of South Africa. He complained bitterly about us canvassing the gay vote, and advertising in their newspaper. I argued that we were fighting the elections in Hillbrow, and to win it we had to do it the Hillbrow way. As far as I was concerned the rest of the country should do their electioneering their own way, and not concern them with us. Let us face it, some of the National Party policies were seriously frowned upon in our constituency. We did not phone other candidates requesting them not to make statements that didn’t suit us. We had some serious discussions about the situation and he forbade us from advertising in the “Queers newspaper”, seeing that he felt the entire country were mocking the National Party as the “Queer Party”, because of our friendship with the gay community.
The law those days read that any political advert had to have the name and address of the individual placing the advert printed at the bottom of the advert. Although I was not a member of the party and thus could not care a damn about the party’s leader’s feelings and opinions, I had to consider Leon’s position; Mr. “F” had threatened to cut off our financing. I could not place my name and address on the adverts, not while I was the supposedly “Campaign Manager”.
Because of our friendly relationship with the gay community, we had a few gay guys popping into the office on a regular basis to exchange news, have a cup of coffee and to assist in canvassing the gay vote. I made an arrangement with one of these guys, nicknamed Silky, to place adverts in support of Leon in Exit, only mentioning Leon’s name and not the party’s, under his, Silky’s, own name and address. I handed Silky cash to pay for these adverts, making sure that there won’t be any record of the Campaign Office actually paying.
A number of phone calls were received from Mr. "F", and Penguin, leader of the party in the greater Johannesburg, complaining about our continued advertising in Exit. My argument though could not be faulted, there was no law forbidding an independent individual from placing adverts under his own name in support of a political candidate, without naming the party the candidate represents. I won the day, even though the argument continued till the day of the elections. I must add that the then editor of Exit, Henk, gave our campaign some positive publicity.
Penguin loved to arrange small meetings at his home during which he claimed policies would be discussed. Due to our history I never attended these “meetings”. Rumour had it that if you attended such a meeting, accompanied by an attractive girlfriend or wife, Penguin would give you some very special attention early in the evening, filling you up with quality booze, until your senses were no longer functioning. Then he turned his charm on for your companion! It is also rumoured that he never became leader of the party, he made two attempts, because of his womanizing ways, and the skins incident. His fellow party members did not trust him.
As part of Leon’s campaign we made him meet the people of the suburb not only at their apartments, but also where they played. So Leon became a regular visitor to the many pubs, clubs and Gay bars of Hillbrow. I believe the locals appreciated this, making them feel that the candidate was not an outsider, but a true member of the community. This did lead to some embarrassing situations though. On a number of occasions we received phone calls at the office requesting us to collect our candidate from this or that bar or club, he had imbibed too much of the drinks offered by well-wishers, and could not stand on his own legs. It must have been quite a sight watching two men carry a vomiting drunk 'future' member of parliament through the streets of his constituency. This didn’t seem to do his candidature much harm; it only enhanced that image of “He is one of us”.
As our campaign progressed we got more and more volunteers, some who went as far as joining the National Party, as fully paid up members. Two of them, a male and a female, actually stood us candidates for the party in municipal elections in later years, both loosing. The male did become a Member of Parliament and spokesperson for the party, in the 1990’s after the demise of the Apartheid Government, under very weak leadership. What happened to him at the death of the National Party is unknown to me.
Leon soon had some affair going with the female during our campaign, which did lead to some unhappiness amongst the other volunteers. The feeling was that she got preferential treatment and didn’t carry her weight work-wise. The fact that she might have carried Leon’s weight at home when they were alone was in my opinion none of our business. I felt that she did take a lot of weight off our shoulders though, taking care of our candidate when he went canvassing votes in the pubs and clubs, thus ensuring that he did not have to be carried back to the office due to over indulging in free drinks.
We hardly heard from, or came across, any people from the other two parties. Yes, they did have as many, if not more, posters up on the lamp and telephone poles as us. They did get a fair amount of publicity in the national press, bur very little in the local press except the occasional advertisement.
Vic, one of our illegal immigrants, and I did attend a public meeting held by Mr. "A". This was not a very well attended meeting, a few reporters and few bored locals chatting away while Mr. "A", and his support speaker, were making their speeches. We had stopped at a pub for a few quick doubles on our way to the meeting, so we were very ready to give Mr. "A" a verbal workout came question time. Things did get out of hand shortly and we got kicked out of the meeting. But then it was about over anyway, we had made our points and the journalists were happy that at least there were a bit excitement to report on. Mr. "A" did not get a very good press the next morning; it was felt he stumbled a bit when answering our questions, before he resorted to having us expelled. Mission accomplished.
Most of our ‘public meetings’ took place in pubs and clubs, but we had to cater for those who do not frequent these places of entertainment too. So we arranged for a meeting in a local school hall. Unfortunately the biggest political hitter the party would make available to us to give the keynote speech was Woof-Woof. He showed his true colours years later during the Codesa negotiations when the death of Apartheid was planned by the National Party and the ANC. The “Afrikaner Weerstand Beweging” (AWB) had serious objections to these negotiations and attacked the venue by driving a armoured vehicle through the plate glass windows of the venue. Woof-Woof and his fellow National Party negotiators went and hid in the toilets, pity nobody flushed, while the ANC disappeared. Both parties had a
lot of hot air blowing towards the press after the police had cleared the scene.
At least one man stood his ground, a Mr Rashbanzi of a small Indian party from Natal, who was rewarded for his bravery by getting a massive backhander slap across the cheek from the leader of the AWB.
Woof-Woof didn’t go down well with the small audience of elderly people that did show up at the meeting. He came across as very arrogant, telling people who complained about the crime and general degeneration of the area that it was not the governments’ problem, arguing that he did not tell those complainants to live in the Hillbrow area; it was by their own choice. These people were mostly pensioners that had lived in the area for decades, and could not afford to move. Our whole team of volunteers were very upset by this attitude, and Woof-Woof left without much of goodbyes, it was more a case of good riddance.
The next day the newspapers had a field day slamming Woof-Woof and the National Party. Our cause was severely damaged and a mood of dejection set in at our offices. We decided to through a drink-as-much-as-you-can party for all the volunteers, hoping that
The Hillbrow Election, 1987 Page 3