Progressive Federal Party (South Africa)

Progressive Federal Party Progressiewe Federale Party
Leader	See below
Founded	1977
Dissolved	1989
Preceded by	Progressive Reform Party
Merged into	Democratic Party
Ideology	Liberalism (South African) Anti-apartheid

The Progressive Federal Party (PFP) (Afrikaans: Progressiewe Federale Party) was a South African political party formed in 1977. It advocated power-sharing in South Africa through a federal constitution, in place of apartheid. Its leader was Colin Eglin, who was succeeded by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and then Zach de Beer, but its best known parliamentarian was Helen Suzman, who was for many years the only member of the whites-only parliament to speak out against the apartheid regime.

The party was preceded by the Progressive Party as the liberal opposition to the National Party. While the main opposition United 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 the Reform Party in 1975, which merged with the Progressives to form the Progressive Reform Party later the same year.

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.

South Africa's apartheid laws limited the party's membership to the country's whites, from which it drew support mainly from liberal English speakers. 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 to Australia.

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