Hendrik Verwoerd

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Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd
Prime Minister of South Africa
In office 2 September 1958 – 6 September 1966
Preceded by	Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom
Succeeded by	Balthazar Johannes Vorster
Born	8 September 1901(1901-09-08) Amsterdam, Netherlands
Died	6 September 1966 (aged 64) Cape Town, South Africa
Political party	National Party
Spouse(s)	Betsie Schoombie

Apartheid in South Africa
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Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (Amsterdam, 8 September 1901 – Cape Town, 6 September 1966) was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966. Verwoerd was born in The Netherlands and emigrated at age two with his parents to South Africa.

He served as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until he was stabbed to death by an assassin in 1966. He was Prime Minister during the establishment of the Republic of South Africa in 1960, thereby fulfilling the Afrikaner dream of an independent state for South Africans. During his tenure as Prime Minister, anti-Apartheid movements such as the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress were banned, and the Rivonia Trial, which prosecuted the struggle leaders, was held.

Numerous major roads in towns and cities in South Africa were named after Dr. Verwoerd, Verwoerd Dam in the Orange Free State, H. F. Verwoerd Airport in Port Elizabeth, as was the town of Verwoerdburg South of Pretoria and H.F. Verwoerd Hospital in Pretoria & Hendrik Verwoerd Drive in Randburg.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Return to South Africa 3 Government service 4 Separate development/Apartheid 5 Parliament 6 A Republic 7 Assassination attempt 8 Solidifying the regime 9 1966 election and assassination 10 See also 11 References

[edit] Early life

He was the second child of Anje Strik and Wilhelmus Johannes Verwoerd. His father was a shopkeeper and a deeply religious man who decided to move to South Africa in 1903 because of his sympathy towards the Afrikaner nation after the South African War. Hendrik Verwoerd had an elder brother named Leendert and a younger sister named Lucie. In 1913, the family moved to Bulawayo, Rhodesia, the elder Verwoerd became an assistant evangelist in the Dutch Reformed Church. Hendrik Verwoerd attended Milton High School where he did so well that he was awarded the Beit Scholarship, but was forced to decline because of his family’s move back to South Africa, Brandfort in the Orange Free State. Due to the worldwide spanish flu epidemic, Hendrik Verwoerd only sat for his matriculation exams in February 1919, proving himself to be an able student at the Lutheran School in Wynberg and the Wynberg High School for Boys, achieving first position in the Orange Free State and fifth in South Africa.^[1]

After his schooling, he proceeded to study theology at the University of Stellenbosch, later changing to psychology and philosophy. He was awarded a masters and a doctorate in philosophy, both cum laude, and turned down an Abe Bailey scholarship to Oxford University, England, opting to continue his studies in psychology in Germany. Verwoerd left for Germany in 1925, and stayed there during 1926, studying at the Universities of Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig. His later critics have at times suggested that this coincided with the rise of German National Socialism in the 1930s; however this stay predated it by a number of years. During this visit, he might have met with Fischer, but even at this stage, social-Darwinism was not the focus of Verwoerd's research. He published a number of works dating back to that time, which are all still available at the library of the University of Stellenbosch:^[2]

A method for the experimental production of emotions (1926)

"'n Bydrae tot die metodiek en probleemstelling vir die psigologiese ondersoek van koerante-advert" (1928) ("A contribution on the psychological methodology of newspaper advertisement")

The distribution of "attention" and its testing (1928)

Effects of fatigue on the distribution of attention (1928)

A contribution to the experimental investigation of testimony (1929?)

"Oor die opstel van objektiewe persoonlikheidsbepalingskemas" (1930?) ("Objective criteria to determine personality types")

"Oor die persoonlikheid van die mens en die beskrywing daarvan" (1930?) ("On the human personality and the description thereof")

Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd's fiancee, Betsie Schoombie, joined him in Germany and they were subsequently married on 7 January 1927 in Hamburg. Later that year, he continued his studies in Britain and then in the United States of America. Millar, who did an in-depth study on the early career of Verwoerd, concluded that there is no evidence that Verwoerd had been infected by the racial ideology of the National Socialists in Germany. He was in fact more impressed by some strands in American Sociology. His lecture notes and memoranda at Stellenbosch stressed that there were no biological differences between the big racial groups, and concluded that "this was not really a factor in the development of a higher social civilization by the Caucausians." Verwoerd's admiration of the American doctrine of "separate but equal" cannot be equated with the racial ideology of the National Socialists.^[3]

[edit] Return to South Africa

He returned with his wife to South Africa in 1928 and was appointed to the chair of Applied Psychology and six years later also became Professor of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Stellenbosch. During the Depression years of 1929 Verwoerd became active in social work among poor White South Africans. He devoted much attention to welfare work and was often consulted by welfare organisations, while he served on numerous committees. His efforts in the field of national welfare drew him into politics and in 1936 he was offered the first editorship of ‘Die Transvaler’, a position which he took up in 1937, with the added responsibility of helping to rebuild the National Party of South Africa (NP) in the Transvaal. Die Transvaler was a publication which supported the aspirations of Afrikaner nationalism, agricultural and labour rights. Combining republicanism, populism and protectionism, the paper helped solidify the sentiments of most South Africans, that changes to the socio-economic system were vitally needed.^[4]

[edit] Government service

The South African general election of 1948 was held on the 26 May 1948 and saw the Nationalist Party win the general election. Running on the platform of self-determination and apartheid as it was termed for the first time, Prime Minister Daniel Malan and his party benefited from their support in the rural electorates, defeating General Smuts and his United Party. General Smuts lost his own seat of Standerton. Most party leaders agreed that the nationalist policies were responsible for the National Party's victory. To further cement their nationalist policies, Herenigde Nasionale Party leader Daniel Malan called for stricter enforcement of job reservation protecting the rights of the White working class, and the rights of White workers to organize their own labour unions outside of company control.

Hendrik Verwoerd was elected to the Senate of South Africa later that year, and became the minister of native affairs under Prime Minister Malan in 1950. In that position, he helped to implement the Nationalist Party's program securing the rights of Whites in South Africa in a policy of nationhood & commencing the path of independence for the various Black tribes .^[4]

[edit] Separate development/Apartheid

Hendrik Verwoerd is often called the “Architect of Apartheid”^[5] for his role in shaping the implementation of apartheid policy when he was Minister of Native Affairs during the early 1950s, describing it as a "policy of good neighbourliness".^[6]

The policy of apartheid drew upon many existing laws, established by the British Government, that recognised the distinctive difference of the various Black tribes and initiated their path to independence, thereby establishing the nations of Basutoland, Swaziland & Bechuanaland.

The following legislation was enacted and enforced by the British Government in South Africa.

• The Native Pass Law of 1809.
  • Promulgated by the British Government, which required that every black person should carry an ID document, called a pass. Failure to do so was a criminal offence.

• Apartheid in sport can be traced back to 1894.
  • When Cecil John Rhodes prevented Krom Hendriks, a coloured cricketer, to accompany the Cape team to England.

• The South African Native Affairs Commission (SANAC) was appointed by Lord Milner in 1903.
  • Published their findings in 1905. Scholars today recognise their recommendations as having laid the blue-print not only for the policies of racial segregation from 1910 to 1948, but also apartheid and separate development up to 1990.

• Apartheid in the schools was introduced in 1905.
  • When Rhodes introduced compulsory segregation of Black and White children in Cape schools. No such laws existed in the two Boer Republics, where an easy relationship existed between the Afrikaner and the African, as children were largely home taught by their parents or visiting teachers.

• Lord Balfour, intervened in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London.
  • Warning about the dangers of extending the franchise to the 'natives' as the Black community was known at the time. Chamberlain, Lord Milner, J.A. Froude, Anthony Trollope and Lord Bryce, among others, were dead-set against extending the franchise to the 'natives.' The South African colonies were to join the 'White' Commonwealth in the form of the Union of South Africa to become 'a White man's country like Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

• The South African Act, which was adopted by the British Government in 1907.
  • Determining that only persons of European descent may be elected to Parliament of South Africa

• The Native Land Act 2 of 1913.
  • Prohibited private ownership of land by Black people outside the territory of their respective homelands.

• Minister H.W. Sampson's act of 1925
  • Introduced the concept of job reservation in the Mines and Industry.

• The Natal Immorality Act of 1927.
  • Interracial marriage or sex was prohibited between Whites and others. The Immorality act of 1957 was based on that initial law.

• General Jan Smuts, then a leading light in the British Commonwealth, introduced separate representation of race groups in Parliament in 1936
  • To preserve the British dictate that South Africa shall be a White man's country. In that Act Blacks were removed from the common voters roll and the recommendations of the Lagden Commission were implemented, namely "separation of Black South Africans and White South Africans as voters". The term 'apartheid', was coined by Gen J.C. Smuts when he was Prime Minister, and not by Dr Verwoerd as politicians would have us believe.^[7]

The concept of racial segregation was therefore firmly entrenched in South Africa after the Second World War when the National Party defeated the Pro-British United Party of South Africa of General Smuts at the polls to become the new government.

Afrikaner nationalism was skilfully mobilised by leaders in the theological, political, cultural, economic, agricultural and industrial sectors as well as in government service. A strategy of massive economic development was introduced to make South Africa less dependent on Britain and to create thousands of job opportunities. It was at that time when Britain offered autonomy to the contiguous colonies, namely Lesotho, situated in the heart of South Africa, Swaziland and Botswana. They gratefully accepted the offer and all three were newly independent by the time Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd came to power.

Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd realised that the political situation that evolved over the previous century under British rule in South Africa had become untenable. This led Dr. Verwoerd to extend the same offer of autonomy to South Africa's own Black tribes, who in most cases were economically and numerically more viable than the three fledgling ex-protectorates Britain gave independence to. Botswana for instance had a population of only 292,755 according to the 1948 census. "…There is little opportunity for wage earning within the protectorate and most of the people live the life of peasant farmers." ^[8]

The story of Lesotho is not much different, even though the population at the time was double that of Botswana. At any one time about a quarter of Lesotho's population would be finding employment in adjacent White South Africa in the mines or on commercial farms. Lesotho's annual budget in 1960 was only ₤2 million, much less than the annual budget of a medium sized South African municipality like Germiston. Land in the protectorates was communal property and administered in trust by the local chiefs, similar to all Britain's other colonies in Africa at the time. The same land ownership philosophy applied to the Black homelands in South Africa.

The promotion of Black self-determination secured the survival of White Africans in South Africa. Verwoerd supported the concept of Black nation states through the policy apartheid's socio-economic motivations, Kwa-Zulu, Transkei, Bophutatswana amongst others were placed on a path to independence by the South African Government.

Verwoerd's initial policies were aimed at alleviating the declining standards of White workers. Although South Africa had the most advanced economy and infrastructure in Africa, its economic condition had stagnated. Massive amounts of foreign investment were put into South Africa principally directed at the mining industry, a strong source of income for the country. Prior to World War II, the debates in domestic policy had centered upon increasing South Africa's industrial potential and greater diversification of its production sector. During the Great Depression of 1929, large numbers of Black Nationals were attracted to South Africa's labour market. As a consequence the Labour unions in the mining area accused the state of impoverishing the skilled White workers in South Africa. Verwoerd blamed multinationals for using cheap Black labour for this situation and immediately implemented policies increasing minimum wages for all races, increasing the quota of native South Africans in manufacturing and mining and ended the use of importing non-South African Bantu nationals from the tribal areas.

Particularly important in this regard was the policy of Separate Development. This policy restored strict separation between the South African and Bantu national areas. Based on British colonial policies of residential segregation. Black Africans were migrant laborers, returning to their Nations on completion of their contract. Additionally the Black Nations were under the Separate Development plan placed on a path to independent sovereignty. The South African Government increased financial investment in the various Black Nations promoting the private sector to follow suite in advancing development.

Verwoerd argued that a policy of economic decentralization would make for a peaceful multicultural society, with each community exercising its right of political self-determination, the political catch phrase after World War II. Industrialists were encouraged with all sorts of tax incentives and labour benefits to establish industries on the homeland borders, resulting in a symbiotic relationship between labour and capital within a common economic system. During the 1960s and 1970s, the country experienced an unprecedented economic growth. Unemployment was at its lowest in history. Each homeland had its own Development Corporation. Large communal estates were established, which provided jobs for thousands of peasant workers and which injected millions of dollars into the communal coffers. Tea estates, coffee plantations, citrus and desiduous fruit estates with their own canning and processing facilities earned valuable foreign exchange for homelands and the region as a whole. Universities and Technikons were established for each language group, decentralised in line with the overall policy and turning out thousands or literate Black professionals. New capital cities were built, each with its own parliament and administration complexes. The development projects, in the Black Nation States, initiated under Prime Minister Verwoerd's Government were financed by South African investments. ^[9]

[edit] Parliament

Prime Minister Daniel Malan announced his retirement from politics following the successful elections of 1953. In the succession debate that followed Dr. Malan's retirement, N.C. Havenga, E. Donges and Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd were potential successors. The strongest candidate J.G. Strijdom was nominated Prime Minister.

Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd gradually gained popularity with the Afrikaner electorate and continued to expand his political support. With his overwhelming constituency victory in the 1958 election and the death shortly thereafter of Prime Minister J.G. Strijdom, Verwoerd was appointed by the Governor-General to organize a Government as Prime Minister.

Under the Premiership of Dr. Verwoerd the following legislative acts were introduced:

• The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)
  • This law laid the cornerstone for self-government in the Black 'homelands'. The aim was that these homelands would eventually become independent, sovereign nations.

• Bantu Investment Corporation Act (1959)
  • A law that offered financial incentives for industrial corporations to transfer their capital from White South Africa to the Black Nation States promoting their economic development & autonomy.

• The Extension of University Education Act (1959)
  • Legislation advancing the establishment of greater number of Universities for Blacks, Coloureds and Indians.

• Physical Planning and Utilisation of Resources Act (1967)
  • A Legal Act preventing further industrial development in White South Africa offering the incentive to re-direct such development to the Black Nation States. Promoting the economic growth in the Black States.

[edit] A Republic

The creation of a Republic was one of the National Party's long-term goals since originally coming to power in 1948.

In January 1960, Verwoerd announced that a referendum would be called to determine the Republican issue, the objective being a republic within the British Commonwealth. Two weeks later, Harold Macmillan, then British Prime Minister, visited South Africa. In an address to both Houses of Parliament he made his famous Winds of Change speech, which was interpreted as an end to British support for White rule.

In order to bolster support for a republi], the voting age for Whites was lowered from twenty-one to eighteen, benefiting younger Afrikaans speakers, who were more likely to favour a republic, and the franchise was extended to whites in South West Africa, most of whom were German or Afrikaans speakers.

The referendum was accepted by Parliament and was held on 5 October, 1960, in which voters were asked, "Do you support a Republic for the Union?" 52 percent voted 'Yes'.^[10] The Republic of South Africa came into existence on 31 May 1961, this significant date was chosen because it was the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging that had brought the Anglo-Boer War to an end in 1902.

Following India's assumption of a republican status, it was agreed by Commonwealth leaders that being a Republic was not incompatible with membership, but that a Commonwealth Realm would have to reapply for Commonwealth membership if it became a Republic.

[edit] Assassination attempt

On 9 April 1960, Dr Verwoerd opened the Union Exposition on the Witwatersrand to mark the jubilee of the Union of South Africa. David Pratt a South African farmer from Natal attempted to assassinate Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, firing two shots from a .22 automatic pistol at point blank range, one bullet perforated his the right cheek the second his right ear.

Colonel G.M. Harrison, president of the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society, leapt up and knocked the pistol from the gunman's hand. After the pistol fell to the floor, Colonel Harrison, with the help of Major Carl Richter (the Prime Minister's personal bodyguard), civilians and another policemen overpowered the gunman and hustled him to the show grounds Police Station. The arrest was made so quickly and the removal was done so quickly that an angry section of the crowd was frustrated from assaulting the detainee. The detainee, David Pratt, was soon thereafter hurried to Marshall Square [police station].

Within minutes of the assassination attempt, Dr Verwoerd was rushed - still conscious - to the Pretoria Hospital. Two days later, the hospital issued a statement which described his condition as 'indeed satisfactory - further examinations were carried out today and they confirm good expectations. Dr Verwoerd at present is restful. There is no need for any immediate operation.' The surgeons who worked on Dr Verwoerd would later claim that his escape had been 'absolutely miraculous'. Specialist surgeons were called in to remove the bullets. At first, there was speculation that Dr Verwoerd would lose his hearing and sense of balance, but these fears were to prove groundless. He returned to public life on 29 May, less than two months after the shooting.

David Pratt, Dr Verwoerd's would-be assassin, appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court on 11 April. He was described as a 'socialite and farmer'. He was a respected member of the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society and had been close to Dr Verwoerd on a number of occasions prior to the shooting. In fact, it was later revealed that Pratt had been one of the VIPs sitting next to Dr Verwoerd during the opening of the exposition. David Pratt, who claimed he had been shooting 'the epitome of apartheid', was eventually declared ‘mentally disordered and epileptic'. On 26 September 1960, he was committed to Pretoria Central Prison to 'await indication of the Governor General's pleasure'. On 1 October 1961, he hanged himself at Bloemfontein Mental Hospital.^[11]

[edit] Solidifying the regime

For the next few years Verwoerd aimed to unify White Africans principally the two largest groups of British descent and Afrikaners. With the Republic established the greatest obstacle to White South Africa was certain foreign, namely communist, interference in domestic affairs, which sought to obligate White Africans in South Africa to hand political power to the populous neighbouring Black Nations under the guise of universal suffrage. Due to the events witnessed in the decolonisation process, such as in Kenya, Tanganyika & The Belgian Congo; the chaos, massacres (Congo Crisis) and degradation that followed, provided a strong incentive to unify anti communist Black & White Africans in South Africa as well as Rhodesia and Portuguese Africa.^[12]

Condemnation by the Commonwealth and United Nations Organisation (UNO) pressured South Africa & her allies to capitulate, whilst simultaneously encouraging communist insurgents and dissidents as the ANC and PAC to continue their clandestine operations of terror and sabotage. I order to contain the insurgency the Government enacted legislation empowering the security forces to effectively counteract and prevent further violence as was witnessed in Cato Manor. For most of the 1960s South Africa remained stable and South African Security Forces were able to contain lawlessness.

In 1961, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld stopped over in South Africa and subsequently stated that he had been unable to reach agreement with Prime Minister Verwoerd.^[13] On 6 November 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, condemning South African apartheid policies. On 7 August 1963, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 181 calling for a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa, and in the same year, a Special Committee Against Apartheid was established to encourage and oversee plans of action against the regime.^[14] From 1964, the US and Britain discontinued their arms trade with South Africa.^[15] Economic sanctions against South Africa were also frequently debated in the UN as an effective way of putting pressure on the apartheid government. In 1962, the UN General Assembly requested that its members sever political, fiscal and transportation ties with South Africa.^[16] In reply to this continuous assault on South Africa, Verwoerd had declined to get together and engage in dialogue with leaders such as Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria in 1962 and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia in 1964.^[17] Instead, he deepened the nationalist government, increased the security apparatus, and sought to open new relations with other nations in South America, Portugal, Israel, Taiwan, and South Korea.

[edit] 1966 election and assassination

The National Party under Verwoerd won the 1966 general election. The security regime successfully pioneered developments in native armaments manufacturing including aircraft, small arms, armored vehicles, and even nuclear and biological weapons.^[18]

Three days before his death, Verwoerd had held historic talks with the Prime Minister of Lesotho, Chief Leabua Jonathan, at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.^[19]. Following the meeting, a joint communique was issued by the two governments with special emphasis on co-operation without interference in each others' internal affairs. Against this background, the South African Prime Minister was expected to make an important policy statement at the parliamentary session on 6 September 1966.^[20] It was expected to deal with comprehensive resettlement of the Bantu Black Nationals and a new economic program.

On 6 September 1966, Verwoerd was murdered in Cape Town, shortly after entering the House of Assembly at 2:15 PM. A uniformed parliamentary messenger named Dimitri Tsafendas stabbed Verwoerd in the neck and chest four times before being subdued by other members of the Assembly.^[21] Members who were also trained as medical practitioners rushed to the aid of Verwoerd and started administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation.^[22] Verwoerd was rushed to Groote Schuur Hospital, but was declared dead upon arrival.

Tsafendas escaped the death penalty on the grounds of insanity. The Attorney General had a strong suspicion that the murder was politically motivated & that Tsafendas was a "hired killer". Judge Beyers ordered Tsafendas to be imprisoned indefinitely at the "State President's pleasure."

Verwoerd's funeral, attended by a quarter of a million people,^[23] was held in Pretoria on 10 September, 1966, and can be heard on a set of LPs issued by the South African Broadcasting Corporation entitled "In Memoriam: H.F. Verwoerd 1901-1966". Verwoerd was buried in the Hero's Acre in front of the Union Buildings.^[24]

The still blood-stained carpet where Hendrik Verwoerd lay after the murder remained in Parliament until it was removed in 2004.^[25][26]

[edit] See also

• List of South Africans
• South Africa under apartheid
• History of South Africa
• List of South Africa–related topics

[edit] References

Preceded by Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom

Prime Minister of South Africa 1958–1966

Succeeded by Balthazar Johannes Vorster

v • d • e Prime Ministers, Vice State President, and Deputy Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers Louis Botha · Jan Smuts · James Barry Munnik Hertzog · Jan Smuts · Daniel François Malan · Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom · Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd · Balthazar Johannes Vorster · Pieter Willem Botha Vice State President Alwyn Schlebusch Deputy Presidents Frederik Willem de Klerk/Thabo Mbeki · Thabo Mbeki · Jacob Zuma · Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka · Baleka Mbete

Persondata
NAME	Verwoerd, Hendrik Frensch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Former South African Prime Minister
DATE OF BIRTH	8 September 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH	Amsterdam, Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH	6 September 1966
PLACE OF DEATH	Cape Town, South Africa