PROGRESSIVE FEDERAL PARTY

Afrikaans Progressiewe Federale Party (PFP) former South African political party established in 1977 in the merger of the Progressive Reform Party (founded 1975) and defectors from the United Party (founded 1934; see New Republic Party). In 1989 the Progressive Federal Party merged with two smaller parties to form the liberal Democratic Party (q.v. ). The history of the Progressive Federal Party may be traced to 1959, when liberal defectors from the United Party (the major opposition to the ruling National Party) formed the Progressive Party. From 1961 to 1974, Helen Suzman was the party's sole representative in Parliament, fighting alone against apartheid and the extension of South Africa's racial and security laws. In 1974, however, the Progressive Party won seven seats and, in the following year on July 25, 1975, merged with the Reform Party (itself formed in February of that year by other defectors from the United Party); the result was the Progressive Reform Party, which, with further recruits from the United Party, became the Progessive Federal Party on Sept. 5, 1977. In 1981 the party won 26 seats in Parliament. The number had dropped to 19 by the time of the merger of 1989. The party sought a new constitution for South Africa, with equal rights for all South Africans, regardless of race or creed; it looked for proportional representation without majority domination.