SLABBERT - MAN ON A MISSION

<p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Frederik van Zyl Slabbert was a man on a mission whether as an academic an opposition politician a democratic facilitator or a businessman. Perhaps this was a product of his restless probing intellect or his early ambition to become a dominee in the Dutch Reformed Church. When he famously led a delegation of leading Afrikaners to Dakar in 1987 to meet the exiled ANC many saw it as a breakthrough while others felt he had been taken in. And yet his reputation - for honesty integrity wit and courage - still towers above many of his contemporaries. Slabbert was always different.</strong></p><p>As an academic turned politician the charismatic Slabbert brought unusual intellectual rigour to Parliament transforming the upstart Progressive Federal Party into a force that challenged the National Party government. But disillusioned by the paralysis of formal white politics and by the growing polarisation of South African society he resigned in 1986 to explore democratic alternatives to the impasse into which the country had been led under apartheid. Largely side-lined during the democratic transition he continued to pursue a broad range of initiatives aimed at building democracy empowering black South Africans and transforming the economy. </p><p> </p>