Reform Party (South Africa)

Reform Party
Reformiste Party (Afrikaans)
LeaderHarry Schwarz
Founded11 February 1975
Dissolved25 July 1975 (merged with Progressive Party)
Preceded byUnited Party
Merged intoProgressive Reform Party
IdeologyLiberalism
Anti-apartheid

The Reform Party (Afrikaans: Reformiste Party) was an anti-apartheid political party that existed for just five months in 1975 and is one of the predecessor parties to the Democratic Alliance. The Reform Party was created on 11 February by a group of four Members of Parliament (MPs) who left the United Party under the guidance of the leader of the United Party in the Transvaal, Harry Schwarz, who became the party's leader. Schwarz and others were staunchly opposed to apartheid and called for a much more rigorous opposition to the National Party. They said that they no longer felt the UP was "the vehicle in which we can travel the path of verligtheid". The party had four MPs, two senators, ten members of the Transvaal Provincial Council, 14 out of the 36 Johannesburg City Councillors and four Randburg City Councillors. This made it the official opposition in the Transvaal Provincial Council.


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