Encyclopedia > Progressive Federal Party (South Africa)
The Progressive Federal Party (PFP) was a South Africanpolitical party formed in 1977. It advocated power-sharing in South Africa through a federalconstitution, in place of apartheid. Its leader was Colin Eglin, who was later succeeded by 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's abuses.
It drew support mainly from liberal English-speaking white South Africans, as owing to South Africa's apartheid laws, its membership was limited to the country's whites. The PFP was derided by right-wing whites, who claimed its initials stood for 'Packing for Perth', on account of the many white liberal supporters of the 'Progs', who were emigrating to Australia.
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).
The National Party (Afrikaans: Nasionale Party) (with its members sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats) was the governing party of SouthAfrica from 1948 until 1994, and was disbanded in 2005.
The National Party was founded in Bloemfontein in 1914 by Afrikaner nationalists soon after the establishment of the Union of SouthAfrica.
Another goal was achieved in 1960, when the white population voted to sever SouthAfrica's ties with the British Monarchy and establish a republic, which led to SouthAfrica's withdrawal from the Commonwealth.
The SouthAfrica Act was the result of a political compromise between the two major white ethno-linguistic groups - the Afrikaners, descendants of 17th- and 18th-century Dutch, French and German settlers, who speak Afrikaans (a derivative of 17th-century Dutch) and comprise the majority of SouthAfrica's white population; and the English speakers.
As her party's sole representative in Parliament from 1961 to 1974 (she was the only ProgressiveParty candidate to win a seat in the 1966 and 1970 general elections), Mrs.
The proposed constitution, enacted by Parliament as the Republic of SouthAfrica Constitution Act of 1983, was submitted to a referendum of the white electorate, held on November 2, 1983.
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