Colin Eglin
Colin Wells Eglin (born April 14, 1925 in Cape Town ; † November 29, 2013 there ) was a South African politician. He was opposition leader in the South African National Assembly from 1977 to 1979 and from 1986 to 1987 .
Life
After the death of his father at the age of nine, Eglin moved to Hobhouse in the Orange Free State , where he lived with his aunt and was the only English speaker at school. At the age of 14 he graduated from De Villiers Graaf High School in Villiersdorp near Cape Town. In 1940 he began studying for a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Cape Town (UCT). In 1943 Eglin interrupted his studies and took part in the Second World War with the Union Defense Force . Initially he was an air defense trainer in Cape Town; he then worked in a similar position in Egypt and Italy . After his demobilization , he stayed in Italy and studied archeology and urban planning for nine months . In 1946 he finished his studies at UCT with a Bachelor of Science degree in Quantity Surveying (for example: "Building calculation").
In 1951 he was elected for the United Party (UP) as a member of the council in the Pinelands district. 1954 to 1958 he was also for the UP in the Provincial Council of the Cape Province . In 1958, Eglin was elected to the National Assembly as a UP MP for the Cape Peninsula. In 1959 he was a founding member of the Progressive Party (PP). In 1961 he was a member of the Molteno Commission, which worked out a draft constitution that provided for extensive rights for all South Africans and is considered a model for the constitutions of the 1990s. He lost his seat in the National Assembly in the 1961 elections. He founded Synthesis , a non-partisan political research and discussion forum beyond the "racial barriers" customary at the time.
In February 1971 Eglin became chairman of the PP, in April 1974 he was re-elected to the National Assembly. In July 1975 Eglin was elected chairman of the PP successor party Progressive Reform Party , in 1977 he became chairman of the party now known as the Progressive Federal Party (PFP). At the same time he became opposition leader in the National Assembly. In 1979 he was replaced by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and acted as shadow foreign minister until 1986 . After van Zyl Slabbert's resignation, Eglin was again party chairman from 1986 to 1988, and also an opposition leader until the PFP was defeated in 1987. His successor as chairman was Zach de Beer . Eglin also retained his mandate when the PFP was absorbed into the Democratic Party in 1989 and the Democratic Alliance in 2000 . In 2004 he left parliament. He was named South African Parliamentarian of the Century by Leadership Magazine that same year . Nelson Mandela called him "one of the architects of our democracy".
Eglin died of heart disease in November 2013 at the age of 88. He was married and had three children.
Honors
- 2004: Parlamentarian of the Century
- 2012: Prize for Freedom of the Liberal International
- 2013: Order of the Baobab in silver for his fight against apartheid
Works
- Crossing the Borders of Power. Autobiography. Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg 2007, ISBN 978-1868422531 .
literature
- Colin W. Eglin , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 46/1979 of November 5, 1979, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)
Web links
- Colin Eglin - Obituary In: The Daily Telegraph, March 2, 2014
- Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English)
- Interviews at nelsonmandela.org.za (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e biography at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on August 14, 2013
- ↑ a b c Acknowledgment by Helen Zille (English), accessed on August 13, 2013
- ↑ Biography at capetown.gov.za ( Memento from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Eglin, Colin |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Eglin, Colin Wells (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | South African politician |
DATE OF BIRTH | April 14, 1925 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Cape Town |
DATE OF DEATH | November 29, 2013 |
Place of death | Cape Town |