Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd
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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. Unlike his predecessors, Verwoerd was not born in South Africa, but immigrated at age two with his parents from the Netherlands. A polarizing figure, he is often considered to be the primary architect of "modern" apartheid (the foundations of which was laid by British colonial pass laws), and was Prime Minister during the Sharpeville massacre, the banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress, and the treason trial of Nelson Mandela and others. He also presided over the establishment of a republic through a whites-only referendum. However, in a controversial 2004 poll by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, asking South Africans to name the top 100 South Africans of all time, he was voted 19th.
Numerous major roads in towns and cities in South Africa are named after Verwoerd, although some have now been renamed. The Gariep Dam in the Free State, and Port Elizabeth Airport in the eastern Cape were formerly named H. F. Verwoerd, as was the town of Verwoerdburg (now Centurion) and H.F. Verwoerd Hospital (now Pretoria Academic Hospital).
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[edit] Youth
Verwoerd went to high school at Wynberg. In 1913, the family moved to Bulawayo, part of then-Rhodesia, where he attended the Milton High School. In 1917, the family moved again, this time to Brandfort in the Orange Free State. Due to the worldwide spanish flu epidemic, Verwoerd only sat for his matriculation exams in February 1919.
Directly afterwards, he took up his studies at the University of Stellenbosch. He excelled as a student, completing his studies with honours. Verwoerd completed his Master's degree in 1922, and his doctorate in 1924.
Verwoerd is often accused of having been a student of Dr Eugen Fischer, who conceived of the theories on racial hygiene in Germany. However, Verwoerd's thesis was not on anthropology or social-Darwinism: Verwoerd was a psychologist and only much later branched out into sociology. His doctoral thesis was on the psychological effect of emotional dreariness on a person (in Afrikaans: "Afstomping van Gemoedsaandoeninge"). In the bibliography, Verwoerd cited a fair number of German works, inter alia those of Freud, but none of Fischer.
Verwoerd left for Germany after the completion of his doctoral studies in 1925, and stayed there during 1926 while visiting 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 visit 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:
- 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 dermine personality types")
- "Oor die persoonlikheid van die mens en die beskrywing daarvan" (1930?) ("On the human personality and the description thereof")
His fiancee, Betsie Schoombie, joined him in Germany and they were subsequently married on 7 January 1927. Later that year, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom and then in the United States. 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.[citation needed]
[edit] Architect of apartheid
- Main article: Creation of apartheid
Verwoerd is often attributed the title of “Architect of apartheid”. Apartheid was however a partial legacy of British colonialism that introduced a system of pass laws in the Cape Colony during the 19th century. This was done with the object of regulating the movement of blacks from the tribal regions to the areas occupied by whites and coloureds, and which were ruled by the British. Pass laws not only restricted the movement of blacks into these areas, but also prohibited their movement from one district to another without a signed pass. Blacks were not allowed onto streets of towns in the Cape Colony and Natal after dark and had to carry a pass at all times. However, he was responsible for considerably expanding the apartheid system and creating the "modern" version of apartheid.
The following principal "Apartheid acts" were introduced during Verwoerd’s tenure as Prime Minister:
- The Promotion of Black Self-Government Act (1958)
- This law set up separate territorial governments in the 'homelands', designated lands for black people where they could have a vote. The aim was that these homelands would eventually become independent of South Africa. In practice, the South African government exercised a strong influence over these separate states even after some of them became 'independent'.
- Bantu Investment Corporation Act (1959)
- This law set up a mechanism to transfer capital to the homelands in order to create jobs there.
- The Extension of University Education Act (1959)
- This law created universities for blacks, coloureds and Indians.
- Physical Planning and Utilization of Resources Act (1967)
- This law allowed the government to stop industrial development in 'white' cities and re-direct such development to homeland border areas. The aim was to speed up the relocation of blacks to the homelands by relocating jobs to homeland areas.
[edit] A republic
During Verwoerd's term in office, South Africa ceased to be a Commonwealth realm under Queen Elizabeth II known as the Union of South Africa, instead becoming a republic in 1961, known as the Republic of South Africa. The creation of a republic was one of the National Party's long-term goals since originally coming to power in 1948; and Verwoerd's antipathy towards the British Crown was long standing; as editor of the newspaper Die Transvaler, he ignored the British Royal Family's tour of South Africa in 1947, with one news item only referring in passing to 'congestion caused by some visitors from overseas'.
The opposition United Party and many English-speaking whites of British descent were opposed to a republic, but once again, Verwoerd changed the law to his advantage: He lowered the voting age for whites to 18, and allowed whites in South West Africa to vote. On 5 October 1960 a referendum was held in which white voters were asked "Do you support a republic for the Union?" — 52 percent voted 'Yes'. Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom's government had brought in a rule requiring governments to seek 2/3 approval of the electorate before carrying out a constitutional change, but this rule was ignored: Verwoerd barely managed to cross the 50% threshold. He persuaded many South Africans that given the first assassination attempt on him, Harold Macmillan's Winds of Change speech and international condemnation following the Sharpeville massacre, South Africa would have to go it alone by becoming a republic. Many South Africans of English origin voted for the change believing that South Africa would remain in the Commonwealth, suggesting that there may have been significant numbers of Afrikaners opposed to the change, given that they made up a much larger proportion of the voting population. Verwoerd also managed to persuade them by keeping the system of government almost exactly the same (except that the president would be chosen by both houses). The Republic of South Africa came into existence on 31 May 1961, 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 republic 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.
At the meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers held in London, Verwoerd argued that apartheid was just a matter of good labour policy. However, a number of Commonwealth Prime Ministers, particularly John Diefenbaker of Canada, denounced apartheid and argued that racial equality was a principle of Commonwealth membership. As a result of widespread opposition from the leaders of non-white New Commonwealth countries as well as Old Commonwealth member Canada and the threat that several countries would resign from the Commonwealth if South Africa's application was approved, Verwoerd withdrew South Africa's application to remain a member of the Commonwealth on 15 March 1961. South Africa's membership officially lapsed on 31 May when it officially became a republic.
South Africa's Commonwealth membership was restored in 1994, although it remains a republic.
[edit] Assassination
On 16 April 1960, Verwoerd was shot and injured by David Pratt while opening the Rand Easter Show at Milner Park, Johannesburg. Pratt was declared insane and sent to a mental institution in Bloemfontein, committing suicide a few months later.
In 1966, Verwoerd was stabbed to death in the House of Assembly by Dimitri Tsafendas, a parliamentary clerk, who escaped the death penalty on the grounds of insanity, saying that a large worm in his stomach told him to kill Verwoerd.
Tsafendas's motive for killing Verwoerd remains unclear. Tsafendas had a Mozambican mother and, although not racially classified as a "coloured", he had dark skin. This may have played a role, since he had recently fallen in love with a coloured woman. He had applied for reclassification as a coloured, since sexual relations between people of different races were illegal under apartheid.
It is also unclear to what degree the murder was a political act. The trial of Tsafendas dealt mainly with the question of whether he was capable of fully understanding the consequences of his actions, and possible motives were never discussed. The attorney general alleged that Tsafendas was a "hired killer", but this was not accepted by Judge Beyers, who ordered Tsafendas to be imprisoned indefinitely at the "State President's pleasure."
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Account of the trial of Demitrios Tsafendas, by Judge Wilfred Cooper who led his defence
| Preceded by: Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom |
Prime Minister of South Africa 1958–1966 |
Succeeded by: Balthazar Johannes Vorster |
