'''Federal Independent Democratic Alliance''' (FIDA) was a South African black conservative group set up in 1987. It was later established that it was a [[front organisation]] for Apartheid government.
==Background== It was established in July 1987 by an [[East Rand]] businessman, [[John Gogotya]].<ref name=Kot01/> It had its origins as a cultural organisation called Operation Advance and Upgrade.<ref name=Kot01/> Gogotya would later claim his organisation had 600,000 members.<ref name=Kot01/> Gogotya made statements that the organisation was opposed to Apartheid but willing to talk to the government.<ref name="USN01">{{Cite magazine |title=Weighing Change in Pretoria |magazine=U.S. News & World Report |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_u-s-news-weekly-special-issues_1987-07-20_103_3/page/n41/mode/2up?q=%22Federal+Independent+Democratic+Alliance%22&view=theater |publication-place=Washington DC |publication-date=20 July 1987 |volume=103 |pages=38 |series=3}}</ref> Some of the statements made by the organisation included supporting the state of emergency declared by the government in the mid-80's and opposed [[Disinvestment from South Africa|Western disinvestment]] imposed on the country.<ref name=Kot01/> Other policies included supporting the [[Bantustan|homeland system]], a federal system that would replace the provincial system and included the existing homelands at the time and opposed a "one man, one vote" as a political solution.<ref name=Kot01/>
==Front organisation== During the mid-eighties, the [[SADF]] Military Intelligence (MI) organisation created ''Project Capital''.<ref name="Truth">{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/truthreconciliat0000sout_n6g6 |title=Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa report |publisher=The Commission |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-333-77615-5 |location=Cape Town |pages=300–1}}</ref> The object of the project was to create front organisations consisting of a moderate alliance of Black South African organisations to combat violence occurring in their communities.<ref name=Truth/> One of these groups was FIDA.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ottaway |first=Marina |url=http://archive.org/details/southafricastrug00mari |title=South Africa : the struggle for a new order |publisher= Brookings Institution |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8157-6716-9 |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=108}}</ref> SADF ended the project with FIDA in September 1991, when the MI projects were closed and FIDA received a final payment of R1.47 million.<ref name=Truth/> At its height, it had an annual budget of R3 million in 1991, was based in Johannesburg, with offices in thirteen regions in South Africa and employed sixty-eight employees.<ref name=Truth/> Supplied information to the MI on the protest movement in the townships through the [[State Security Council|Joint Management Centres]].<ref name=Kot01/><ref name=Truth/> There, it also distributed anti-protest and anti-boycott pamphlets.<ref name="Kot01">{{Cite book |last=Kotzé |first=H. J. (Hendrik Jacobus) |url=http://archive.org/details/politicalorganis0000kotz |title=Political organisations in South Africa : A-Z |publisher=Tafelberg; Centre for South African Politics at the University of Stellenbosch |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-624-03042-3 |location=Cape Town |pages=109–10}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Political history of South Africa}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Federal Independent Democratic Alliance}} [[Category:Organisations associated with apartheid| ]] [[Category:1987 establishments in South Africa]] [[Category:Defunct organisations based in South Africa| ]]