Zacharias Johannes de Beer (born Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, South Africa, 11 October 1928 - 27 May 1999) was a liberal Afrikaner

Afrikaner

Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...

 South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n politician and businessman. He was the last leader of the liberal Progressive Federal Party

Progressive Federal Party

The Progressive Federal 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...

 and then the co-leader of the new liberal Democratic Party

Democratic Party (South Africa)

The Democratic Party was the name of the South African political party now called the Democratic Alliance . Although the Democratic Party name dates from 1989, the party existed under other labels throughout the Apartheid years, when it was the Parliamentary opposition to the ruling National...

.

A medical doctor by profession, De Beer was first elected to the House of Assembly

House of Assembly of South Africa

The House of Assembly was the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa from 1910 to 1984, and latterly the white representative house of the Tricameral Parliament from 1984 to 1994, when it was replaced by the current National Assembly...

 in 1953 as an MP for the opposition United Party

United Party (South Africa)

The United Party was South Africa's ruling political party between 1934 and 1948. It was formed by a merger of most of Prime Minister Barry Hertzog's National Party with the rival South African Party of Jan Smuts, plus the remnants of the Unionist Party...

. On the party's left wing, he and fellow MP Helen Suzman

Helen Suzman

Helen Suzman, DBE was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician.-Biography:Helen Suzman, a life-long citizen of South Africa, was born as Helen Gavronsky in 1917 to Jewish immigrants....

, Colin Eglin

Colin Eglin

Colin Wells Eglin is a South African politician who is best known for having served as national leader of the opposition from 1977–79 and 1986-87...

, Ray Swart, Harry Lawrence

Harry Lawrence

Harry Gordon Lawrence was a South African politician.Harry Lawrence was on the liberal wing of the United Party. He was the most senior of the MPs who broke away and founded the Progressive Party in 1959....

 and Dr Jan Steytler

Jan Steytler

Jan van Aswegen Steytler was a liberal South African politician and the first leader of the Progressive Party . He was born in Burgersdorp, in the then Cape Province now Eastern Cape Province.-Background:...

 resigned from the party after its national congress voted against returning any further land to the black majority for their occupation and use. He and the other liberal MPs formed the new Progressive Party

Progressive Party (South Africa)

The Progressive Party was a liberal party in South Africa that opposed the ruling National Party's policies of apartheid, and championed the Rule of Law. For years its only member of parliament was Helen Suzman...

 in 1959. De Beer lost his seat in the 1961 general election

South African general election, 1961

The 1961 South African general election was the first general election after South Africa became a republic following the 1960 South African referendum. The National Party under Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd won a majority in the House of Assembly....

 and joined an advertising agency before moving on the Anglo-American. In the 1977 general election

South African general election, 1977

The 1977 South African general election was held on 30 November 1977. The National Party, led by John Vorster won a landslide victory in the House of Assembly. The newly formed Progressive Federal Party, led by Colin Eglin became the official opposition. The New Republic Party, successor to the...

, he was returned to Parliament

Parliament of South Africa

The Parliament of South Africa is South Africa's legislature and under the country's current Constitution is composed of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces....

 as an MP for what had become the Progressive Federal Party which had been formed that year through a merger of the Progressive Party and various other liberal groups of MPs. He became the PFP's leader in August 1988 and, with Denis Worrall

Denis Worrall

Denis John Worrall is an academic, businessman, and former politician and diplomat. He was South African ambassador to Australia from 1982 to 1984 and then Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1984 to 1987. He resigned his post in order to return to South Africa and form the liberal...

 and Wynand Malan

Wynand Malan

Wynand Malan is a liberal Afrikaner South African politician.A lawyer, Malan entered politics in the 1977 South African election when he was elected to the South Africa's all white parliament as the National Party MP for Randburg....

 was a co-leader of the new Democratic Party when it formed in 1989.

Following the DP's defeat in the first post-apartheid election of 1994

South African general election, 1994

The South African general election of 1994 was an election held in South Africa to mark the end of apartheid, therefore also the first held with universal adult suffrage. The election was conducted under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission .Millions queued in lines over a three...

, De Beer resigned as party leader. He was appointed South African ambassador to the Netherlands by Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

.

De Beer was for many years a director of the Anglo American PLC/De Beers

De Beers

De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...

diamond mining conglomerate.