Thirteen Formative Years |
 APARTHEID – The origins of my interest in politics: When I was 15 years old, a group of MPs broke away from the official opposition United Party and formed the Progressive Party. I was keenly interested in what had happened, and can clearly recall discussing these events with my Kilimanjaro climbing companions. In 1961 – two years earlier than constitutionally necessary – the National government called an early general election, and the twelve Progressive Party Members of Parliament seen in this photograph were reduced to just one: the sole woman, Helen Suzman, who then became the party’s only MP for the next 13 years. |