Jacob "Japie" Basson (25 July 1918 – 8 August 2012) was a South African politician who began his career with the National Party, but was later expelled from it, and became a forceful critic of the apartheid government as a member, by turns, of the United Party, Progressive Federal Party, and his own short-lived National Union.[1][2] He was described as "fiery", "colourful", an "individualist", and as the "chameleon" of South African politics for his shifting partisan allegiances.[1]
He was originally elected to the House of Assembly in 1950 as MP for the constituency of Namib, in what was then South African-administered South West Africa, before leaving the National Party in 1959. In 1960, he co-founded the South West Party with Ferdinand Lempp, former editor of Allgemeine Zeitung, the German language daily newspaper in the territory.[3]
However, he later founded his own party, the National Union, which despite its opposition to many aspects of the apartheid policies of Hendrik Verwoerd, supported his government's decision to make South Africa a republic, although he declared that a republic would do Verwoerd himself no good.[4]
In 1980, in the wake of disagreements with the PFP over support for the constitutional reforms of the government of P. W. Botha, he was expelled from the party caucus.[8] This was because he had stated that he was prepared to serve on the President's Council, a body established by the Botha government to advise on a new constitution.[9] Earlier, his party had adopted a resolution rejecting the body.[10] He was appointed to the President's Council, serving as a member of its Constitutional Committee from 1981 to 1984, and on retirement from the Council, rejoined the National Party.[11]
