Frederik van Zyl Slabbert GCOB (2 March 1940 – 14 May 2010) was a South African political analyst, businessman and politician. He is best known for having been the leader of the official opposition – the Progressive Federal Party (PFP) – in the House of Assembly from 1979 to 1986.
In 1986, Slabbert resigned from his position as leader of the opposition because he felt that Parliament was becoming an irrelevant institution in the context of South Africa's political problems. Prior to his resignation, he published a book entitled The Last White Parliament in which he explained his actions, and his predictions for the future of South Africa.
Following his resignation, Slabbert and Alex Boraine, a fellow PFP MP, formed the liberal think tank IDASA (Institute for Democracy in Africa) with funding from, among others, the Ford Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy. Critics from the left charged that it "pushed an essentially neoliberal agenda" focussing on limited forms of representative democracy in which economic questions were not subject to democratic control. This conference represented the first step towards dismantling apartheid and informed subsequent negotiations (CODESA) which changed the course of South Africa's history.
In 2002, Slabbert was appointed by the then Minister of Home Affairs, with the approval of Cabinet, as the chair of the Electoral Task Team. The team had the responsibility of coming up with a new Electoral Act for South Africa. The task team completed its work by early 2003, and presented a report to Cabinet, including draft legislation, recommending a closed-list, mixed member proportional electoral system. However, the team's recommendations were never implemented.
Business career
From the 1990s until his death, Slabbert was a successful entrepreneur and businessperson. Slabbert also worked as regional facilitator for the George Soros-backed funding organisation, the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa, which identifies and invests in worthy projects in nine African countries.
In addition, he co-founded Khula — a black investment trust — in 1990. Slabbert was appointed as chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed Adcorp Holdings in 1998 and also sat on the boards of several other JSE-listed companies such as Wooltru, Investec, Caxton and Radiospoor.
Final years
Slabbert was appointed as the 13th chancellor of Stellenbosch University on 1 August 2008, but he suffered a heart attack at the end of the same year, an event that led to him having a pacemaker inserted.
In early May 2010, Slabbert was discharged from hospital after receiving treatment for a liver related illness. He died at home on 14 May 2010. Slabbert was survived by his wife Jane and two children from his first marriage—Tania and Riko.
Legacy
Many public figures in South Africa paid tribute to Slabbert for the role he played in ending apartheid.
In 2004, Slabbert was voted 82nd in the Top 100 Great South Africans.
Works
- South Africa's Options: Strategies for Sharing with David Welsh. London: Rex Collings (1979).
- The Last White Parliament: The Struggle for South Africa, by the Leader of the White Opposition. Sidgwick & Jackson (1986).
- Comrades in Business: Post-Liberation Politics in South Africa with Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley. Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers (1998).
- Tough Choices: Reflections of an Afrikaner African. Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers (2000).
- The Other Side of History: An Anecdotal Reflection on Political Transition in South Africa. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers (2006). (Also in Afrikaans as Duskant die geskiedenis, .)
As editor
- Youth in the New South Africa: Towards Policy Formulation – Main Report of the Co-Operative Research Programme: South African Youth.