Remembering Colin Eglin
The following remarks were made by DA Leader Helen Zille at the funeral of Colin Eglin held in Cape Town today.
So many tributes have been written to Colin that it is difficult not to use clichés to get to the heart of his contribution and life.
When I was thinking about him and Madiba, two great statesmen, I could not help but think of the aphorism: power does not change who you are; it reveals who you are.
I think the aphorism is truer when you make a transition from power rather than to power.
So much about Colin was revealed in the circumstances surrounding his leadership of the Progressive Federal Party. In unexpected circumstances, he stepped up to the plate.
Power did not change him, and when he relinquished it, he showed his famous attribute of a lack of self-indulgence.
Some people called him 'Mr Gruff' and I suppose it could be said, to use another aphorism, that he wanted to serve humanity in general without being impeded by people in general.
In my own circumstances as a journalist, it was easier to prepare to interview P.W. Botha than Colin.
You had to be completely briefed and know the questions you wanted to ask. But later, Colin was always someone to whom I could go for advice as a candid friend.
I remember well at the time of the formation of the Democratic Alliance that Colin said, "If you are stupid enough to get into this merger, you better be stupid enough to make it work."
His advice simply was to hang in there for the long haul.
Today we can be 'stupid enough' to believe that we can make South Africa work when no comparable country has made it work, because we start from a much better place owing to Colin's amazing contribution.
He understood that the struggle for freedom is never finally won. This of course was Colin's second great struggle, as he fought Fascism and Nazism in the great battles of Northern Africa and Italy in the Second World War.
Colin leaves an indelible legacy for South Africa in the form of the Constitution.
He spent his life thinking about the solutions and the need for a negotiated settlement, and he did not mind that others walked off with the plaudits.
Today we can see Colin's handwriting all over our Constitution. On his passing, Sir David Steel described Colin as a giant of practical liberalism. So today we bid farewell to a giant of South Africa.
We will always remember you and you are immortalised in our constitution.
Issued by the DA, December 9 2013
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