Harry Heinz Schwarz (13 May 1924 – 5 February 2010) was a South African lawyer, statesman and long-time political opposition leader against apartheid, who eventually served as the South African ambassador to the United States during the country’s transition to representative democracy.
Schwarz rose from the childhood poverty he experienced as a German Jewish refugee to become a lawyer and a member of the Transvaal Provincial Council, where from 1963 to 1974, he was Leader of the Opposition. In the 1964 Rivonia Trial he was a defence lawyer. Advocating a more aggressive political opposition to the National Party's racial policies in the 1960s and 1970s, as Leader of the United Party in Transvaal and leader of the liberal "Young Turks", he clashed with the United Party establishment. He championed the cause of non-violent resistance to apartheid and in 1974 signed the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith with Mangosuthu Buthelezi for a non-racial democratic society in South Africa. He was in the opposition for over 40 years and was a founding member of the Democratic Party. During and after South Africa's abandonment of apartheid, he was South African ambassador to the United States and was also the first South African ambassador to Barbados.
Schwarz was a founder of the Torch Commando, an ex-soldiers' movement to protest against the disenfranchisement of the coloured people in South Africa. For decades he was on the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and was one of the Jewish community's foremost leaders. He is regarded as one of the great South African orators and debaters of his time. In his political career spanning 43 years, in which he gained respect from across the political spectrum, he never lost an election. He was a World War II veteran, having served as a navigator in the South African Air Force. In 1988 he received the Order for Meritorious Service and received several Honorary Doctorates.
Schwarz was described by the University of Stellenbosch as "one of the conceptual and moral fathers of the new South Africa" in the sense that he had not only been one of apartheid's most prominent opponents, but his ideas and the initiatives he had taken had played a key role in the development of the concept of a negotiated democracy in South Africa, based on the principles of freedom and justice. Nelson Mandela, a friend of his whom he visited while in prison, described him as a "champion of the poor".
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Harry Schwarz, born Heinz Schwarz, was born to Fritz (1897–1969) and Alma Schwarz (1901–1999) in Cologne, Germany. His family belong to the Glockengasse Synagogue. He arrived in South Africa as a Jewish refugee from Germany in 1934 with his mother and younger brother Kurt. His father Fritz, a Social Democratic Party activist, left for South Africa the night the Nazis came to power. They boarded the SS Giulio Cesare in Genoa, Italy which took them to South Africa. When they arrived in Cape Town they stayed in one room in a house in Kloof Street. Schwarz described how he was "lucky" as eventually he was able to sleep in a bathroom in a rusty bath. He spoke no English at first and had strong memories of being taunted on the schoolyard for being different. Schwarz stated in an interview in 1991 that "I know what the word discrimination means, not because I've read it in a book, but because I've been the subject of it. And I know what it means to be hungry." The discrimination and financial difficulties of his family left a strong impression on Schwarz and helped shape his political philosophy with its emphasis on social justice and the rule of law.
He attended Tamboerskloof School and South African College Schools in Cape Town and then Jeppe High School for Boys in Johannesburg.
In 1942, aged 17, he joined the South African Air Force during World War II in order to fight Nazism. He served as a navigator and fought in North Africa and Italy. It was in the air force that he adopted the name Harry, as his Colonel said Heinz would not stand him in good stead if he were captured by Germans. He was in 15 Squadron and seconded to the RAF. In 1984 he was made an Honorary Colonel of the 15th Squadron.
In 1946 he went to University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with the help of a Government loan and grant, where he first befriended fellow students and future anti-apartheid political activists Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo. He joined the United Party and assisted in the 1948 election. However, as a result of the National Party victory, he was determined to become more active and was elected Chairman of the United Party branch at the university. He argued that the National Party's victory in 1948 was reversible and anyone who opposed them should concentrate on defeating them. In an interview in 1991, Schwarz said on the National Party victory that “To me, they were the people who had supported Germany during the war. As a young man, it was very objectionable to me that the very people I had been fighting against were the people that the National Party had supported.” He was also president of the university's ex-servicemen's league and chair of the Law Students Council.
He was awarded a BA, with distinctions in both history and economical history, and later an LLB. In 1949 he was admitted as an attorney, and later as a barrister (Member of Middle Temple) in London, United Kingdom and, in 1953, became an advocate at the South African Bar.
In 1963 Nelson Mandela and many other political opponents were arrested and brought to court in the famous Rivonia Trial. Harry Schwarz was one of the defence barristers in the trial defending Accused No. 8 Jimmy Kantor, who was a close friend of his. Kantor was Mandela's lawyer in the trial until he too was arrested and charged with the same crimes as Mandela. After being the subject of vicious taunting and many attempts to place him as a vital cog of MK by Percy Yutar, finally Judge Quartus de Wet discharged him, stating Accused No 8 has no case to answer. Kantor along with Rusty Bernstein were the only accused who were acquitted. Kantor noted in his autobiography, A Healthy Grave, that Schwarz refused payment. Schwarz was refused access to Mandela while he was imprisoned on Robben Island, however he was granted access to visit him after 1988 when he was transferred to Victor Verster Prison. After the trial he left the Bar and became a solicitor so that he could concentrate on fighting apartheid.
During the trial he presented the case for Kantor as follows, "My Lord, it is difficult to reply in a restrained fashion. My learned friend must not use words such as 'Communist' lightly, when he refers to Kantor. Kantor is not a Communist. My learned friend has used the tactics of McCarthyism in an endeavour to smear him. I think, with respect, my learned friend is allowing himself to run away with facts that are not there. His complaint in count one is not that they found files with evidence. Oh not, he says that 'we found files with nothing in them', not in Kantor's office, but in the office of Wolpe. Then my learned friend [held] that the practice had been ruined and liquidated Kantor's practice. My lord, it is not Kantor. It is not Kantor! Why I say it is so difficult to be restrained, is that my learned friend has thrown in everything that concerns every accused in this case, and says 'that is why I don't want Kantor to get bail.
Harry Schwarz's political career started with his election to the Johannesburg City Council in 1951 for Booysens, which had been said to be an unwinnable seat against the National Party. The seat had once been occupied by Labour Party politician Jimmy Green, who was his wife's uncle, who was first elected in 1920 to the City Council. In 1958 in a by-election he was elected into the Transvaal provincial council for the Hospital constituency. The constituency eventually changed to be renamed Hillbrow. In 1963 he became leader of the opposition in the Transvaal Provincial Council, a post he would hold until 1974. He continued to practice law in the Provincial Council and throughout his political career. However, he briefly withdrew from law between 1969 and 1974 to take up the post of Chief Executive of Merchant Bank.
Although Schwarz had not joined with the group of 11 more liberal United Party members who formed the Progressive Party in 1959, and whose sole national MP, Helen Suzman, had singlehandely opposed apartheid more vigrously than the entire United Party caucus between 1961 and 1974, by the early 1970s Schwarz had become known as the leader of the liberal "Young Turks" in the United Party who wanted to shift the UP in a much more progressive direction, despite the reluctance of the party's national leader De Villiers Graaff and many of his senior MPs. Schwarz achieved prominence as a race relations and economic reformist in the party. In 1971 he became deputy leader of the UP in the Transvaal, a post specially created for him. However, internal divisions in the Party between liberals and conservatives came to a head in August 1973 when Schwarz replaced Marais Steyn as the leader of the United Party in the Transvaal. Steyn had been a MP for almost 25 years and for 15 years had been a close adviser to De Villiers Graaff. After he lost the election he defected to the National Party. His victory was a visible sign of strength from the liberals within the party.
On 4 January 1974, Harry Schwarz met and had discussions with Gatsha (later Mangosuthu) [Buthelezi, Chief Executive Councillor of the black homeland of KwaZulu. They agreed on a five-point plan for racial peace in South Africa that became known as the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith. The declaration's purpose was to provide a blueprint for government of South Africa for racial peace in South Africa. It called for negotiations involving all peoples, in order to draw up constitutional proposals stressing opportunity for all with a Bill of Rights to safeguard these rights. It suggested that the federal concept was the appropriate framework for such changes to take place. It also first affirmed that political change must take place though non-violent means. The concept of a non-discriminatory society had been outlined in the 'Act of Dedication' of 1973 that Schwarz had written, while Leader of the Opposition in the Transvaal. Schwarz had called for the Transvaal and South Africa to adopt and subscribe to the act. While the United Party Transvaal caucus unanimously adopted the initiative, the National Party refused for it to come to debate. The principles of the act were adopted at the 1973 National United Party Congress.
The declaration was the first of such agreements by acknowledged black and white leaders in South Africa that affirmed to these principles. The commitment to the peaceful pursuit of political change was declared at a time when neither the National Party or African National Congress were not looking to peaceful solutions or dialogue. The declaration was heralded by the English speaking press as a breakthrough in race relations in South Africa. The declaration was endorsed by several chief ministers of the black homelands, including Cedric Phatudi (Lebowa), Lucas Mangope (Bophuthatswana) and Hudson Nisanwisi (Gazankulu).The declaration also received praise from liberal figures such as Alan Paton.
The declaration drew much media interest from both inside and outside South Africa. However, the declaration provoked an angry response from the UP's 'Old Guard', including the party's leader De Villiers Graaff and led to Schwarz and other liberals being expelled from the United Party the following year.
In March 1974 Chief Phatudi, Harry Schwarz and M. I. Mitchell (United Party MP), had discussions at Sheshego. They issued a joint statement, endorsing the principles embodied in the Mahlabatini Declaration. It also stated that all South Africans must be united to meet any external threats, subversion, or terrorism, and that the best way of uniting the people to meet such threats was to give them a real state in society which they were asked to defend.
Harry Schwarz played a key role in the realignment of the opposition in South Africa. In the 1974 general election, the Progressive Party caucus had grown from one seat to five seats and their leader Colin Eglin and other star candidates had joined Helen Suzman. Schwarz was elected into Parliament for Yeoville, beating Marais Steyn who had defected to the National Party after he was ousted by Schwarz as Transvaal chairman of the United Party. On 11 February 1975 he along with three other MPs were expelled from the United Party for signing the Mahlabatini Declaration and not following the "party line". They formed the Reform Party, of which Schwarz as elected leader. The party's charter mainly incorporated the Mahlabatini Declaration's principles and called for universal franchise and for equality to be extended to all. The party had four MP's, a senator, ten members of the Transvaal Provincial Council, which made it the official opposition party in the Transvaal Provincial Council, 14 out of the 36 Johannesburg City Councillors and four Randburg City Councillors.
On 25 July 1975, the Reform Party merged with the Progressive Party to form the Progressive Reform Party. Schwarz became the party's spokesman on finance and Chairman of the Federal Executive, while Colin Eglin, the former leader of the Progressives was elected leader of the newly-merged party. In 1977 the party was renamed the Progressive Federal Party, when additional defectors from the United Party joined. This served to finally realign opposition politics in South Africa, as the PFP became the official opposition party in South Africa, following the 1977 General Election.
Schwarz, as one of his party's co-founders, finance spokesman (1975–91), defence spokesman (1975–84) and Chairman of the Federal Executive (1975–79), was one of its foremost leaders and a prominent leader of the opposition. He was regarded as one of the PFP's "star performer" in parliament. Along with others such as Colin Eglin, he was an iconic opposition figure. He forcefully denounced the government's racial policy and was known for his sharp attacks on the National Party. According to veteran progressive MP Helen Suzman, Schwarz carried out his role so effectively as Shadow Finance Minister that National Party Finance Ministers lived in terror of him, particularly when the time came for delivering the annual budget speech. During the budget debate in 1979, Schwarz called for urgent steps to be taken to tackle unemployment. He stated that South Africa needed to create at least three jobs every minute of every 40-hour working week to deal with its unemployment problem. He stated that unemployment was a political time-bomb. He was a member and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and a member of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. On several occasions, Schwarz received behind-the-scenes offers to take up a Cabinet position under a National Party government, which he refused every time.
While distinctly on the left of South African politics, he was perceived to be on the right-wing of the PFP mainly due to his favouring strong military defence and his insistence that political change must take place without the disruption of law and order, which earned him the nickname "Harry the Hawk Schwarz". He often found himself in dispute with some members of the original Progressive Party, particularly Helen Suzman. Colleagues would often refer the clashes they had in the parliamentary caucus meetings as "the Helen and Harry show". Suzman wrote of her relations with Schwarz in her autobiography, In No Uncertain Terms: A South African Memoir: following the merger between the PP and Schwarz's Reform Party "I stayed in the party, but relations between Harry Schwarz and myself were very strained for some time thereafter. They improved only in 1986 when Frederik van Zyl Slabbert resigned from Parliament and the Progressive Federal Party. Harry Schwarz and I were the two most outraged members of the caucus, and our other differences faded into insignificance as a result. We developed a mutual respect for one another. Schwarz was an extremely able MP with a good financial brain, and a hard worker who could devastate National Party members in Parliament, especially Ministers of Finance, who feared his vigorous attacks. Like me, he could be unpleasant both in and out of the House. The differences we had were not on racial policy, but on his hawkish support of the South African Defence Force."
Schwarz was one of the founding members of the Democratic Party. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, as its Spokesman on Finance, formulated its social market policy. Given South Africa's complex character, Mr Schwarz supported a federal system similar to that of the United States, as well as a justiciable Bill of Rights to protect the rights of minorities as well as the majority. This was also longstanding policy of the former Progressive Party dating back to the report of their Molteno Commission of the early 1960s. His economic philosophy was summed up in a phrase he often used: "Freedom is incomplete if it is exercised in poverty".
On 6 February 1991 he ended his career in parliament following his appointment as the South African ambassador to the United States. His farewell speech to parliament was entitled "Look after my people while I'm gone".
Harry Schwarz was the first serving politician from the parliamentary opposition ranks to be appointed to a senior ambassadorial post in South African history as well as the first Jewish ambassador. He was also accredited as the first South African High Commissioner to Barbados in 1993 when diplomatic relations opened. Schwarz had previously received behind-the-scenes offers to accept a Cabinet position, by President P.W. Botha and Prime Minister B.J. Voster, but refused every time due to his opposition to apartheid. He agreed to the appointment of ambassador because of the government's commitment to the fundamental reforms that he had fought for, as well as on the terms that the National Party would not try to take his seat in Yeoville.
In an interview with the New York Times Schwarz said that "He hasn't asked me to change my political convictions," speaking of President de Klerk. "He knows that I'm implacably opposed to apartheid. Otherwise, there's no logic in asking me to do this job." Nor, Mr. Schwarz added, was he bound for Washington to represent South Africa's five million whites."I've made it clear that I want to be ambassador for 37 million people." A comment in the Daily News, Durban, typified the reaction among South Africans: "The main thing is that Harry Schwarz has been through the mill of opposing apartheid. If he tells them in Washington that change is irreversible, they'd better believe it." The fact that Schwarz, a well known and respected anti-apartheid leader was willing to accept the post was widely acknowledged in South Africa as a further demonstration of President F. W de Klerk's determination to introduce a new democratic system.
While in office in Washington, D.C., he worked on marketing the process towards democracy in South Africa and on lifting sanctions. Schwarz, played a significant role in convincing many Americans that the de Klerk government was committed to ending apartheid. In 1991, after international pressure on South Africa, Harry Schwarz signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. After the 1994 General election, he stayed on as ambassador, following a request from Nelson Mandela to stay on in the government of national unity.
Schwarz resigned his post as ambassador and returned to South Africa in November 1994, following his three and-a-half-year tenure as South African ambassador to the United States. At an event sponsored by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies in his honour, Schwarz urged the Jewish community to make the best of the changes taking place in South Africa and to contribute actively to the success of the country.
Beginning in the mid-seventies, Schwarz played an increasingly important role on the Jewish Board of Deputies, serving as chairman of its committee on international relations and often acting as spokesman for the board to Jewish agencies abroad. He argued that violent change could ultimately lead to a nondemocratic government, incompatible with Jewish ethics and with the interests of the Jewish community. He emphasized that Jews needed not only a democratic society for all, but also "The right to follow [their] own religion and love for Israel freely." He was assured in private meetings by Israeli Prime Minister's Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir that Jews in South Africa would not become isolated and links with Israel would be maintained. Schwarz was at the time of his death the vice-president of the Jewish Board of Deputies.
Harry Schwarz was awarded Order for Meritorious Service (Gold) in 1988, which is awarded to citizens who have displayed exceptional meritorious and dedicated service to South Africa. In 1995 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate, from the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University). That year he also received an Honorary Degree from the University of Stellenbosch. He has also been given the Society of Advocates Prize and Transvaal Law Society Prize. In 1984 he was made an Honorary Colonel of the 15th Squadron in the South African Air Force, which he served in during the Second World War. In 1994 he was awarded the Moral Statesman of the Year award by the Anti-Defamation League. In 2002 he was appointed Honorary Life Vice-President of the Gauteng Council of the Jewish Board of Deputies. In April 2005, he was named an honorary fellow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sir John Adamson High's School's hall was named, and still is, after Schwarz who was the first Chairperson of the School's Governing Body.
Harry Schwarz retired from politics upon returning from Washington, and returned to law to practice in Schwarz-North in Johannesburg and continued to work until he died. His areas of legal practice were primarily corporate and commercial with special interests in banking, insurance, diplomacy and advocacy. In 2000 he left the Democratic Party because of its alliance with the New National Party and in 2008 stated that the DP "should have sought an alliance with black political groups". He remained active in the Jewish community and was up to the time of his death, president of the South Africa-Israel Chamber of Commerce and vice-president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Schwarz delivered his final public speech at the South African Parliament in November 2009 at a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Progressive Party, in which he stated that "freedom is incomplete if it is exercised in poverty". Upon returning to South Africa, Schwarz and his wife set up a charity trust called the Schwarz Upliftment Trust. He lived in Johannesburg with his wife Annette, who is an accomplished artist and ran all of his election campaigns. They were married for 57 years with three children and four grandchildren.
On the morning of 5 February 2010, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies announced that Schwarz had died, following a short illness, at the age of 85. He was laid to rest on Sunday 7 February in the section of honor in the West Park Cemetery in Johannesburg, which was attended by hundreds of guests and family members.
Democratic Alliance leader and Leader of the Opposition Helen Zille led tributes to Schwarz. She said "Harry Schwarz will be remembered for his signal contribution to the development of our democracy. His piercing intellect, and long professional experience in banking, made him the most astute analyst in Parliament on economic and financial matters during his terms in office. He had strong leadership qualities and could inspire people to great achievements. He was an outstanding debater, both inside and outside Parliament. He could stand his ground against all-comers. His principled and steadfast resistance to racial nationalism was rooted in the key role he played in fighting Nazism during World War 2. He continued his resistance to racial nationalism through his long and distinguished career in South African opposition politics. He has engraved his place in South Africa's political history. We will always remember him".
South African President Jacob Zuma also paid tribute to Schwarz in the introduction of his State of the Nation address to Parliament on 11 February 2010, the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison and the 35th anniversary of the founding of Schwarz's Reform Party.
In a statement the Jewish Board of Deputies said that Schwarz "One of the last of a generation of German Jewish refugees from Nazism who came to South Africa in the 1930s, he rendered sterling service to his adopted country, whether in the political, diplomatic, human rights, legal or Jewish communal fields." It stated that he was "amongst the most forthright and effective campaigners against apartheid" and also said how he "remained actively involved in Jewish communal work to the very end." Zev Krengel, Chairman of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, said that "He was a man of formidable intellect and absolute integrity and was throughout his life a brave, unyielding fighter for justice." Rabbi Mendel Rabinowitz, who conducted the funeral said "Those like Harry, who contribute to society in so many capacities for so many years never die. Their bodies are laid to rest but the memory of them continues to live on."
Others such as former Leader of the Opposition Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, former Foreign Minister Pik Botha and the African Christian Democratic Party paid tribute to Schwarz for his record as an anti-apartheid campaigner and for his contribution to democracy and human rights in South Africa.
"Freedom is incomplete if it is exercised in poverty."
"It is important that in the process of change, existing institutions of value and means of production are not destroyed. The fabric of society, however critical one may be of its present structures, should be adopted and modified where required, but not destroyed."
"We are opposed to the homeland concept and we believe the way to solve our problems is to call a national convention of all races to change to a more multiracial basis."
"We are a country with a people who are removing the shackles of apartheid and will create a just economic system and a true democracy"
"I want to abolish discrimination, not merely cosmetically but in reality."
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