About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Eglin, Colin Wells

Click here for list of interviews

Colin Eglin was born in Cape Town in 1925 and graduated from the University of Cape Town with BA (Quantity Surveying) degree. He served in the South African forces in Egypt and Italy from 1943 – 1945.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1958 for the United Party and in 1959 he was one of the founders of the liberal, anti-apartheid Progressive Party, which party he led from 1971-1979, when he was succeeded by Dr van Zyl Slabbert, and again from 1986 until 1988. He contributed significantly to the CODESA negotiations in the lead-up to the 1994 election.

Eglin was consultant in the constitutional process in Fiji in 1998 and 1999, and in East Timor from 2001-2003

In 1997 he was awarded a Degree of Doctor of Laws (H.C) by the University of Cape Town and in 2002 he was awarded the Ramon Trias Fargas Memorial 2002.

Eglin retired from active politics in 2004.

He is married and has three daughters and five grandchildren.

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.