For decades, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert has been one of South Africa’s towering public figures. As an academic, politician, thinker and businessman, Slabbert has made an enduring contribution to many fields, playing a critical role in the transition to democracy and in the creation and building of civil society institutions. As the leader of the official opposition, he fought in Parliament against the apartheid system. As one of the co-founders of IDASA, he led a group of Afrikaners on the historic 1987 trip to Dakar to meet the ANC in exile. With the advent of democracy, he became the founding chair of the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, deepening a lifelong commitment to the freedom of the individual and the consolidation of democratic governance in South Africa.