Leader See below Dissolved 1989 | Founded 1977 Merged into Democratic Party | |
 | ||
Preceded by Progressive Reform Party Ideology Liberalism (South African)
Anti-apartheid | ||
The Progressive Federal Party (PFP) (Afrikaans: Progressiewe Federale Party) was a South African political party formed in 1977. It advocated power-sharing in South Africa through a federal constitution, in place of apartheid. Its leader was Colin Eglin, who was succeeded by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and then Zach de Beer, but its best known parliamentarian was Helen Suzman, who was for many years the only member of the whites-only parliament to speak out against the apartheid regime.
Contents
Formation
The party was preceded by the Progressive Party as the liberal opposition to the National Party. While the main opposition United Party contained liberal factions, the PP had for many years been the only purely liberal party represented in parliament. A realignment began when liberal members of the UP left to found the Reform Party in 1975, which merged with the Progressives to form the Progressive Reform Party later the same year.
In 1977, another group of United Party members left the by then rapidly declining party to form the Committee for a United Opposition, which then joined the Progressive Reform Party to form the Progressive Federal Party.
History
The PFP would become the official opposition in the 1977 election, winning 17 seats, and consolidated its new status in 1981 with 27 seats. Drawing support mainly from liberal English-speaking white people, as owing to South Africa's apartheid laws, its membership was limited to the country's whites, it won seats in cities such as Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Durban. It had very little support amongst Afrikaners, and the PFP was derided by right-wing whites, who claimed its initials stood for 'Packing for Perth', because of the many white liberal supporters of the 'Progs', who were emigrating to Australia.
Another well known parliamentarian and prominent member of the party was Harry Schwarz who had led the Reform Party and signed the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith. He was the chairman of the Federal Executive (1976–79), finance spokesman (1975–91) and defence spokesman (1975–84). He was regarded as the PFP's greatest parliamentary performer and was amongst the most prominent and effective opponents of apartheid in Parliament.
It was ousted as the official opposition by the far-right Conservative Party in the whites-only parliamentary elections held on May 6, 1987.
This electoral blow led many of the PFP's leaders to question the value of participating in the whites-only parliament, and some of its MPs left to form the New Democratic Movement (NDM).
In 1989, the PFP and NDM merged with another small white reformist party, the Independent Party (IP), to form the Democratic Party (DP), predecessor to the modern Democratic Alliance (DA).
Leaders
Leaders of the Progressive Federal Party: