Jacob "Japie" Basson 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. He was described as "fiery", "colourful", an "individualist", and as the "chameleon" of South African politics for his shifting partisan allegiances.