Guardian UK May 16 2010 Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert obituary
By
South African politician and a leading light in the fight against apartheid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/14/frederik-van-zyl-slabbert-obituary
Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert in 2007. His resignation from parliament caused uproar Photograph: AP
Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert – "Van", as he was known among friends and colleagues – was one of South Africa's finest political brains. He has died at the age of 70 after suffering what are believed to have been liver problems. Two years ago he had a pacemaker inserted after a heart attack. Slabbert was the sort of man who brought reassurance that, in the realm of politics, the mind rules supreme. At the same time he is likely to be remembered as one who, because of political circumstances and his understanding of them, could not enter the corridors of power without personal betrayal of a kind he could not countenance.
High achievement marked most of Slabbert's life, from his schooldays, when he captained the first teams in both cricket and rugby, to his appointment as chancellor of Stellenbosch University in 2008. He was born in Pretoria and brought up in the town of Pietersburg (now Polokwane). At Stellenbosch – the alma mater of Afrikanerdom's political elite – he studied theology, switching to sociology after 18 months. He lectured at Stellenbosch, Rhodes and the University of Cape Town, taking his doctorate at 27. In 1973 he became professor of sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Slabbert entered parliamentary politics in the 1974 general election, taking the university seat of Rondebosch, in the Cape. Later he claimed that he had been dragooned into standing by friends during an evening of hard drinking. He joined the Progressive party and Helen Suzman – until then its sole representative in her 13-year parliamentary stand against apartheid. In 1979 Slabbert was elected leader of the "Progs" (which by then had six parliamentary seats and was renamed the Progressive Federal party), and in the 1981 general election they won 26 seats under his leadership. Four years later, he and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi tried to get the government to enter into discussions with all political groups by launching the National Convention Movement.
But Slabbert did not keep his seat for long. In February 1986 he scandalised liberal opinion by abruptly announcing his decision to resign from both parliament and party on the grounds that parliament had become irrelevant to the future of South Africa. Suzman was particularly embittered, describing his decision as a betrayal. Amid the uproar, it is said the charge was levelled against him that he had "brains, but no balls", to which his rejoinder was: "The trouble with this country is you have too many politicians with balls, but no brains."
Committing himself to extra-parliamentary politics, in 1987 Slabbert outraged the then president, PW Botha, by staging a high-profile visit of about 60 influential white people – most of them Afrikaners – to meet and "get to know" leading members of the ANC in Dakar, Senegal. It was in many ways the start of a new future for South Africa.
In an autobiography completed shortly before his decision to resign, Slabbert wrote: "When I look towards the future, I am fearful of the long darkness that may await us all. I am saddened by the human potential we have squandered. But we here in South Africa have problems to solve for which the rest of the world has found no solutions. That in itself is a great challenge."
One such problem, he later observed, was the likelihood of a crisis of expectations. "Far more disturbing are the expectations that people have of what a democracy can deliver, and which research shows it is incapable of doing. This, in the South African context, is the real burden of democracy."
In the 1990s Slabbert went into business, becoming chairman of a major publishing house, Caxtons, chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and taking directorships on a number of boards as well as working for the George Soros philanthropic organisation, the Open Society Foundation of Southern Africa. Along with the chancellorship of Stellenbosch, he resigned from all his company directorships last year, explaining that he wanted to spend more time with his family.
Slabbert is survived by his wife, Jane, and two children from a previous marriage.
• Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert, politician and businessman, born 2 March 1940; died 14 May 2010
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/21693873/Indo-Pak-Wars-1947-71-A-STRATEGIC-AND-OPERATIONAL-ANALYSIS-BY-A-H-AMIN
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
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