Jannie Momberg

Jan Hendrik "Jannie" Momberg (27 July 1938 – 7 January 2011) was a South African politician, businessman, and sports administrator who served in the South African Parliament from 1989 to 2001. A former member of the National Party (NP), Momberg's opposition to apartheid led him to become a founding member of the Democratic Party in 1989, and he joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1992.

Born in Stellenbosch to a conservative Afrikaans family, Momberg inherited half of Middelvlei wine estate and subsequently purchased Neethlingshof Estate. Alongside his business career, he was a sports administrator in the Cape Province and later nationally as a member of the board of the South African Athletics Association. He joined the National Party in 1957 and remained a member until 1987, though by the mid-1960s he was openly critical of aspects of the party's policy of apartheid. By the mid-1980s, Momberg had publicly called for the abolition of apartheid.

In the 1989 general election, he was elected to the House of Assembly, representing the Democratic Party in Simonstown. From 1992, he sat as an independent after defecting to join the recently unbanned ANC. The next general election in 1994 was held under universal suffrage with the ANC's participation and Momberg was elected to an ANC seat in the post-apartheid National Assembly. He served as the party's programming whip until June 2001, when President Thabo Mbeki appointed him to a diplomatic posting. He served as South African Ambassador to Greece from 2001 to 2006.

Early life and career Momberg was born on 27 July 1938 in Stellenbosch in the former Cape Province. He was a member of a prominent Afrikaans family: his father and uncle owned Middelvlei, a successful wine estate in Stellenbosch, and were connected to politicians of the National Party (NP), which came to power in 1948. He was raised alongside his cousin, also named Jan; his cousin was known as Stil Jan (Afrikaans for "quiet Jan") and he, for his volubility, as Jan Bek ("loudmouth Jan"). According to News24, rugby player Jannie Engelbrecht devised the nicknames. In 1985, still a full-time businessman, he called for its abolition, arguing that it had led the international community to view Afrikaners as racist and South African society as nearing extinction.

Political career: 1989–2001

Democratic Party: 1989–1992 Increasingly concerned about the South African political situation – partly as a result of trips to the United Kingdom, where he could read uncensored media reports – Momberg resigned from the NP in 1987 and became a founding member of the liberal Democratic Party (DP) the following year. In 1990, around the time that the ANC was unbanned, he was part of a DP delegation to the movement's headquarters in exile in Lusaka, Zambia; in his memoirs, he recounted the significance of meeting personally the ANC leaders whom he had been led to believe were terrorists. Momberg said that they had concluded that "working toward a democratic transition cannot be done from the comfortable sidelines of minority politics".

Diplomatic career and retirement Upon his departure from Parliament, Momberg was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki as South African Ambassador to Greece, with non-resident accreditation to Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus. At Momberg's request, his funeral service, held in Stellenbosch, was conducted in English by Reverend Braam Hanekom. His memoirs were published posthumously.