5 August 1988
The 59 year old executive of Anglo American, Dr Zach de Beer, was elected as leader of the anti-Apartheid Progressive Federal Party. The officials of the Party had hoped that De Beer would turn the fortunes of the party around. When De Beer assumed his position, the party had only 17 seats out of 178 seats in the White parliament. De Beer succeeded Colin Eglin.
References

AP,(1988), 'Top South African Executive To Run Anti-Apartheid Party', from The New York Times [Online], Available at: www.nytimes.com, [Accessed: 02 August 20123]