Progressive Federal Party Progressiewe Federale Party (Afrikaans)
Abbreviation	PFP
Leader	See below
Founded	1977
Dissolved	1989
Preceded by	Progressive Reform Party
Merged into	Democratic Party
Ideology	Liberalism (South African) Anti-apartheid Federalism
Political position	Centre-left
Politics of South Africa Political parties Elections

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TheProgressive Federal Party (PFP) (Afrikaans:Progressiewe Federale Party) was a South Africanpolitical party formed in 1977 through merger of the Progressive and Reform parties, eventually changing its name to the Progressive Federal Party. For its duration, it was the main parliamentary opposition to apartheid, instead advocatingpower-sharing inSouth Africa through afederal constitution. From the 1977 election until 1987 it was the official opposition of the country.

Its first leader wasColin Eglin, who was succeeded byFrederik van Zyl Slabbert and thenZach de Beer. Another prominent member wasHarry Schwarz who had led the Reform Party and 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.^[1] Its best known parliamentarian was howeverHelen Suzman, who was for many years the only member of thewhites-onlyHouse of Assembly to speak out unequivocally against theapartheid regime.

The party was preceded by theProgressive Party as the liberal opposition to theNational Party. While the main oppositionUnited 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 theReform Party in 1975, which merged with the Progressives to form theProgressive Reform Party later the same year.^[2]

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.^[2]

South Africa's apartheid laws initially limited the party's membership to the country's whites, from which it drew support mainly from liberalEnglish speakers. It opened up its membership to all races as soon as this became legal again, in 1984,^[3] but the party remained predominantly white and English. 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 toAustralia.^[4]

The PFP would become the official opposition in the 1977 election, winning 17 seats. Colin Eglin, who had also led the earlier Progressive Party, was initially the leader of the PFP. But over the weekend of 3 September 1979, on the behest ofGordon Waddell, the PFP would hold a special congress inJohannesburg to elect a new leader, citing such reasons as Eglin's "uninspired" parliamentary performance, which allowed the ruling Nationalists to recover from theMuldergate slush fund scandal; his "indiscreet" contacts with black US politicians Don McHenry andAndy Young, whom many white South Africans regarded as enemies of the country; and the party's severe defeats in three recent Parliamentary by-elections.^[5]Frederik van Zyl Slabbert succeeded Eglin in 1979.^{[citation needed]}

The PFP strengthened its opposition status in 1981 by increasing its representation to 27 seats.^[4]

It was ousted as the official opposition by the far-rightConservative Party in the whites-only parliamentary elections held on 6 May 1987.^{[citation needed]}

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).^{[citation needed]}

In 1989, the PFP and NDM merged with another small white reformist party, theIndependent Party (IP), to form theDemocratic Party (DP).

Leaders of the Progressive Federal Party:

• Federalism
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