Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert

Van Zyl Slabbert was born on the 2nd March 1940 in Pretoria. He grew up in the Northern Province of South Africa and matriculated at Pietersburg Afrikaans Hoėrskool in 1958.

In 1959 he went to the University of Witwatersrand for his first year, and then proceeded to Stellenbosch University, primarily to play rugby, but managed to get a BA in 1961, BA Hons. (Cum Laude) in 1962, MA (Cum Laude) in 1964, and a D. Phil in 1967.

He was an academic for 10 years, then a politician for 12½ years and is now a political analyst and apprentice businessman, and would like to be known as "A Keen Observer of the Current Scene" - whatever that may be.

Slabbert has written a few articles and books, none of which became best sellers. Likes walking, talking and reading. He is married to Jane from Swaziland and has two grown up children, Tania and Riko from his first marriage.

Political Background

Through his work in sociology and his contact with Black people through his studies and the church, and students Slabbert developed an interest in politics. His studies led him to reject separate development and he stood for the Students' Representative Council, a position he lost because he was considered to be too liberal. This did not deter him and he held discussions, seminars and lectures on politics, and even tried to start a student newspaper with an editorial approach opposite to that of the government. His political influences were centred around his studies and lecturers and fellow students played a big role in his development.

In 1974 Slabbert accepted a nomination to stand for Rondebosch in the general election and joined the Progressive Party. He did not expect to win the seat, but triumphed over the National Party (NP) representative by 1 600 votes. He continued to hold the seat for the Progressive Federal party (PFP) in 1977 and 1981.

Slabbert played an important role in the development of the PFP's ideology and was chairman of its Constitutional Committee, which drafted the party's policy accepted in 1978. In 1979 he became leader of the PFP and the parliamentary opposition, a position he held until 1986. He had also been invited to become the Dean of the University of Cape Town.

Slabbert resigned from his position as parliamentarian because he felt that Parliament was becoming an irrelevant institution in the context of South Africa's political problems. He felt that negotiation between Black and White people was better than conflict and in 1987 he re-entered politics to begin contact with the ANC, which resulted in the Dakar conference between the liberation movement and leading politicians, academics and businessmen. The conference was organised by IDASA, the Institute for a Democratic South Africa, of which he became director of policy and planning.

Travel made up a large part of Slabbert's life. He received awards to visit several countries, like the Abe Bailey Travel Bursary to the United Kingdom in 1964. He also toured Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia with Colin Eglin in 1975 and won the American Cultural Exchange Award in 1976. He went to international conferences and delivered papers in the United States of America (USA) and Western Europe. In 1977 he was a research fellow at the Bergstraesser Institute for Social Research in Freiburg, West Germany. Slabbert jointly wrote a book with Professor D. Welsh called 'South Africa's Options: Strategies for Sharing Power', which was published in 1979, as well as papers and articles for several publications.

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