Wynand Charl Malan (born 25 May 1943) is a South African liberal Afrikaner politician and lawyer.

Life and career

A lawyer, Malan entered politics in the 1977 South African election when he was elected to the South Africa's all white

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

as the National Party MP for Randburg. A member of the NP's reform wing, he was critical of P.W. Botha for being too timid in his constitutional reforms in the 1980s and was also critical of the

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered 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 before, during, o ...

implemented by Botha. In the 1987 general election, he left the NP and ran as one of three independent candidates along with former ambassador to London Dennis Worrall and businesswoman Susan Lategan. He was the only one of the trio elected, probably because he was the only incumbent. He subsequently quarreled with Worrall and so the two formed two separate political parties after the election. In early 1989 these two new parties joined up with the veteran Progressive Federal Party to form the Democratic Party, which won a record number of seats for a liberal party in the September 1989 whites-only election. He subsequently became one of three co-leaders of the new party and retained his parliamentary seat in the 1989 general election by defeating former Ambassador to Canada Glenn Babb who was running for the NP. Malan remained in the DP's leadership until 1993. From 1995 to 1998, Malan was a Commissioner of the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

, which was chaired by Archbishop

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

.Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Final Report, vol. 1, p. 44, available at https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/ Malan later joined the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

in 2001 and served as an advisor to former president

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...

References

1943 births Living people White South African anti-apartheid activists South African anti-apartheid activists Afrikaner people National Party (South Africa) politicians Independent Party (South Africa) politicians Democratic Party (South Africa) politicians Members of the House of Assembly (South Africa) {{Gauteng-politician-stub