Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert
Academic, politician, business man and author of several books.
Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert was born on the 2 March, 1940 in Pretoria. He matriculated from Pietersburg Afrikaans Hoërskool in 1958. He studied at the Universities of Witwatersrand (first year) and Stellenbosch: Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Sociology (BA 1961, BA Hons. (cum laude) 1962, MA (cum laude) 1964, and D.Phil 1967). He lectured Sociology at the universities of Stellenbosch, Rhodes, Cape Town and Wits and was appointed professor in 1973.
After 10 academic years he went into politics for 12 years.
"Slabbert dropped a bombshell on SA politics when, in 1986, he resigned from parliament because it had, in his view, become irrelevant. He began a career in commerce by lecturing at the Wits Business School and engaged in political consultancy. In 1987, he made the historic journey to Dakar, Senegal, with a group of mainly Afrikaners when 10 days of talks were held with the then banned ANC. This followed the forming, with Alex Boraine, of IDASA ( Institute for a Democratic Alternative for SA)." (Sunday Times)
He is a director of IDASA.
Slabbert is also working as regional facilitator through the George Soros-backed funding organisation, Open Society Foundation of Southern Africa, which identifies and backs worthy projects in nine African countries.
He co-founded Khula - the black investment trust in 1990, was appointed chairman of JSE-listed Adcorp Holdings in 1998, and sits on the boards of several JSE-listed companies such as Wooltru, Investec and Radiospoor.
He now works as a political analyst and businessman.
Frederik is married to Jane from Swaziland and has two grown up children, Tania and Riko, from his first marriage.
Resource: StellenboschWriters.com
