The Liberal Party of South Africa was a South African political party from 1953 to 1968.

Founding

The party was founded on 9 May 1953 at a meeting of the South African Liberal Association in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. Essentially it grew out of a belief that the United Party was unable to achieve any real liberal progress in South Africa. Its establishment occurred during the "Coloured Vote" Constitutional Crisis of the 1950s, and the division of the Torch Commando on the matter of mixed membership. Founding members of the party included (original positions in the party given): *

Margaret Ballinger Margaret Ballinger (''née'' Hodgson; 1894–1980) was the first President of the Liberal Party of South Africa and a South African Member of Parliament. In 1944, Ballinger was referred to as the "Queen of the Blacks" by TIME magazine. Biogra ...

(South African MP) – President of party *

Alan Paton Alan Stewart Paton (11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988) was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels '' Cry, the Beloved Country'' and '' Too Late the Phalarope''. Family Paton was born in Pietermaritzbu ...

(novelist) – Vice-President * Leo Marquard – Vice President *Dr Oscar Wolheim – Chairman * Leslie Rubin (South African Senator) – Vice-Chairman * Peter Brown – National Chairman * H. Selby Msimang * Leo Kuper *

Hilda Kuper Hilda Beemer Kuper (''née'' Beemer; 23 August 1911 – 23 April 1992) was a social anthropologist most notable for her extensive work on Swazi culture. Early life Born to Lithuanian Jewish and Austrian Jewish The history of the Jews in ...

History

For the first half of its life the Liberal Party was comparatively conservative, and saw its task primarily in terms of changing the minds of the white electorate. It leaned towards a qualified franchise. This changed in 1959–1960. The Progressive Party, formed in 1959, occupied the political ground that the Liberal Party had occupied up till then. In 1960 the

Sharpeville massacre The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng). After demonstrating against pass laws, a crowd ...

and consequent

State of Emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

, during which several Liberal party members were detained, changed the outlook of the party. Another factor was the use of simultaneous translation equipment at party congresses, which enabled black rural members to speak uninhibitedly for the first time. In the 1960s, therefore, the Liberal Party stood unequivocally for a democratic nonracial South Africa, with "one man, one vote" as its franchise policy. The Liberal Party also supported liberal candidates in the

Transkei Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...

bantustan A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (n ...

elections, and helped its rural members and others, especially in Natal, to resist the

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

brought about by the implementation of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. This led to the banning of several party members and leaders. One member of the Liberal Party,

Eddie Daniels Eddie Daniels (born October 19, 1941) is an American musician and composer. Although he is best known as a jazz clarinetist, he has also played saxophone and flute as well as classical music on clarinet. Early life, family and education Daniel ...

, spent fifteen years on Robben Island during

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

's time there.

Contact

The newspaper ''Contact'' was closely tied to the Liberal Party, although officially it was a separate publication. The link is described by Callan as follows: It may, however, be more accurate to tie the paper to Patrick Duncan than the Liberal Party.

End

The party was in direct conflict with the South African government from the outset. This was due largely to the party's opposition to

and criticism of the erosion of human rights by laws allowing detention without trial and arbitrary suppression of political opposition. Many of its members were placed under bans and persecuted by the South African government, which accused the party of furthering the aims of

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

. In 1968 the South African government passed the so-called

Prohibition of Improper Interference Act The Prohibition of Political Interference Act, 1968 (Act No. 51 of 1968, which was also known as the Prohibition of Improper Interference Act, and was later renamed the Prohibition of Foreign Financing of Political Parties Act), was a piece of apa ...

, which banned parties from having a multiracial membership. The Liberal Party was therefore forced to choose between disbanding or going underground, and in 1968 chose to disband. The final meeting was held in The Guildhall, Durban.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * {{Authority control Anti-Apartheid organisations South Africa 1953 Defunct political parties in South Africa Liberal parties in South Africa Political parties established in 1953 Organisations associated with apartheid Political parties disestablished in 1968

Founding

History

Contact

End

See also

Notes

Bibliography