THE National Party, which governed South Africa for 46 long years, faces one of the most severe crises since its formation more than 80 years ago.
The crisis, described as terminal by several political analysts, involves a thinly disguised but fundamental public difference between its national leader, Mr F. W. de Klerk, and its leader in the Johannesburg based province of Gauteng, Mr Roelf Meyer.
The dispute between Mr De Klerk and Mr Meyer resolves around the cardinal question of what direction the NP should take to ensure that its has a viable future in post apartheid South Africa, where the overwhelming majority of the electorate is black.
The discord came to a head last week when Mr De Klerk dissolved a special task team established under Mr Meyer to examine how the NP could serve as the catalyst to the formation of a new movement capable of presenting a credible challenge to the ANC.
Mr Meyer, while prudently stating that he will not make a decision on his future until after a formal meeting with the provincial executive of the NP in Gauteng on May 17th, has hinted strongly that he will press ahead with the quest to initiate a new movement with or without the support of the established NP leadership under Mr De Klerk.
Two broad streams of thought are competing for control of the party.
One is a conservative school which believes that the NP should first consult its support in the white and other racial communities before seeking to become part of a broader based movement capable of drawing support from the black community.
The other is a reformist school which is convinced that the page must move more boldly to win black support by shedding its ideological baggage as the party of apartheid, even if its means dissolving itself.
The first school is symbolised by Premier Hernus Kriel, who led the party to electoral victory, in the Western Cape by uniting white and "coloured" Afrikaans speakers in an alliance designed to halt the predominantly black ANC.
His opponents describe him as anti black.
The second school is personified by Mr Meyer, who, apart from being appointed to head the special task team, won national prominence as the NP's representative during the settlement negotiations of 1991-1993.
Mr De Klerk, a pragmatist who took, the momentous decision to rescind decrees outlawing the ANC and its fraternal "liberation movements", and to seek a negotiated settlement, has effectively come down on the side of Mr Kriel.
(Mr Kriel has accused Mr Meyer of acting outside the mandate given to him by the party, a charge vigorously denied by Mr Meyer.)
By dissolving Mr Meyer's special task team - because, in his view, it was creating tensions within the NP and causing "increasing confusion" in its ranks - Mr De Klerk has publicly expressed lack of confidence in, if not mistrust of, Mr Meyer.
Mr Meyer is moving close striking without, if not against, Mr De Klerk, who is reportedly to have won the support of the eight remaining provincial party leaders.
Mr Meyer's statement to the Johannesburg based Sunday Times hints of imminent defiance: "The time has come to make a move and restructure (and) come out with a nonracial party. A start has to be made ... and I remain committed to that."