Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd
From Metapedia
Dr. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was born in Amsterdam on September 8, 1901. He served as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966. Hendrik Verwoerd emigrated at age two with his parents from the Netherlands. Dr. Verwoerd fulfilled the Afrikaner dream of an independent state for South Africans; when he presided over the establishment of a Republic in 1961. 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, to name a few.
In 2004, a poll commissioned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation declared; Dr. Verwoerd as one of the greatest South Africans of all time.
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[edit] Youth
Hendrik Verwoerd went to high school at Wynberg. In 1913, the family moved to Bulawayo, Rhodesia, where he attended the Milton High School. In 1917, the family moved to Brandfort in the Orange Free State. Due to the worldwide spanish influenza epidemic, Dr. Verwoerd only sat for his matriculation exams in February 1919. He then took up his studies at the University of Stellenbosch. He excelled as a student, completing his studies with Honors. Dr. Verwoerd completed his Master's degree in 1922 and his doctorate in 1924. Dr. Verwoerd was a psychologist and later branched out into sociology. His doctoral thesis was on the psychological effect of emotional dreariness on a person (in Afrikaans: "Afstomping van Gemoedsaandoeninge").
Dr. 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. He published a number of works dating back to that time, which are all still available at the library of the University of Stellenbosch:
- 1. A method for the experimental production of emotions (1926)
- 2. "'n Bydrae tot die metodiek en probleemstelling vir die psigologiese ondersoek van koerante-advert" (1928) ("A contribution on the psychological methodology of newspaper advertisement")
- 3. The distribution of "attention" and its testing (1928)
- 4. Effects of fatigue on the distribution of attention (1928)
- 5. A contribution to the experimental investigation of testimony (1929?)
6. "Oor die opstel van objektiewe persoonlikheidsbepalingskemas" (1930?) ("Objective criteria to determine personality types") 7. "Oor die persoonlikheid van die mens en die beskrywing daarvan" (1930?) ("On the human personality and the description thereof")
Hendrik Verwoerd met his future wife Miss Elizabeth Schoombie whilst they were both students at the University of Stellenbosch. Dr. Verwoerd's fiancée, Betsie Schoombie, joined him in Germany and they were subsequently married on January 7, 1927. Later that year, he continued his studies in Britain and then in the United States.
Hendrik Verwoerd was Professor and head of the Sociology Department at the University of Stellenbosch before becoming Editor of 'Die Transvaler' publication.
[edit] Government
In the early 1950’s Dr. Verwoerd became Minister of Native Affairs. Dr. Verwoerd developed the policy of Separate Development, which went beyond existing policies of residential segregation to insist that Africans could claim citizenship in their respective territories - which, under the Separate Development plan, would become Nation States.
The following principal acts were introduced during Dr. Verwoerd’s tenure as Prime Minister:
- The Promotion of Black Self-Government Act (1958)
- This law set up separate territorial governments in the tribal homelands, designated lands for black tribes. The aim was that these homelands would eventually become independent Nation States.
- 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, Coloreds and Indians.
- Physical Planning and Utilization of Resources Act (1967)
- This law allowed the government to promote industrial development near the homeland border areas.
[edit] A Republic
During Dr. 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. The Republic of South Africa came into existence on May 31, 1961. This date had been chosen because it was the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging that had ended the Anglo-Boer War in 1902.
[edit] Separate Development
[edit] Prime Minister Verwoerd in a speech to the South African Parliament
The tendency in Africa for nations to become independent, and at the same time to do justice to all, does not only mean being just to the black man of Africa, but also to be just to the white man of Africa. We call ourselves Europeans, but actually we represent the white men of Africa. They are the people not only in the Union but through major portions of Africa who brought civilization here, who made the present developments of black nationalism possible. By bringing them education, by showing them this way of life, by bringing in industrial development, by bringing in the ideals which western civilization has developed itself. And the white man came to Africa, perhaps to trade, in some cases, perhaps to bring the gospel; has remained to stay. And particularly we in this southern most portion in Africa, have such a stake here that this is our only motherland, we have no where else to go. We settled a country bare, and the Bantu came in this country and settled certain portions for themselves, and it is in line with the thinking of Africa, to grant those fullest rights which we also with you admit all people should have and believe providing those rights for those people in the fullest degree in that part of southern Africa which their forefathers found for themselves and settled in. But similarly, we believe in balance, we believe in allowing exactly those same full opportunities to remain within the grasp of the white man who has made all this possible.
Dr. Verwoerd's policy of 'separate development' was implemented and is regrettably commonly confused with Gen. Smuts' apartheid.
Separate Development sought to pre-empt the need for large scale migration of people to the towns and cities, by developing the economies of the homelands instead.
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 2.
Industrialists were encouraged with all sorts of tax incentives and labor benefits to establish industries on the homeland borders, resulting in a symbiotic relationship between labor and capital within a common economic system.
During the sixty's and seventy's, 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 dissiduous 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, decentralized in line with the overall policy and turning out thousands of literate black professionals.
New capital cities were built, each with its own parliament and administration complexes. South Africa's taxpayers gladly paid for "...these excesses of apartheid..." as they are being called nowadays.
Mother tongue education was the philosophy for primary, as well as high schools where practicable. Ironically, these institutions became the training ground for South Africa's black rulers of the New South Africa.
It was never understood that social apartheid was a distorted product of the country's British colonial history, whereas Separate Development is the application of the modern concept of Self-Determination for ethnic groups to preserve their identities and to foster peaceful co-existence with others without competing for the same resources.
There is no comparison between the economic development of the South African black homelands and the development of the independent neighboring black states outside South Africa's borders. Tragically, those 'apartheid' training grounds that served today's black leaders so well, have become relics of an apartheid past.
The development corporations have been disbanded.
The estates have been allowed to go to ruin.
Millions of jobless and roofless people are flocking to the cities and towns and live in abject poverty conditions in tin shacks, posing serious health and security problems in breeding grounds for crime.
A high price paid for a simplistic democratic system, now recognized by those familiar with the situation as a majoritarian tyranny.
An untenable social engineering process of nation building sustainable in a country with its deep historical ethnic fault lines.
Afrikaners are a crucial element to ensure the development of South Africa and the African continent.
Requiring acceptance and respect as White Africans with their own peculiar cultural needs, which they want to transfer to their children without interference and to be allowed to participate freely in the economy.
[edit] Assassination
On April 16, 1960, Dr. 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 psychiatric institution in Bloemfontein, committing suicide a few months later.
On September 6, 1966, Dimitri Tsafendas stabbed Dr. Verwoerd to death in the House of Assembly, 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.
It is 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."
Dr. Verwoerd's funeral took place on September 10, 1966.
On hearing of Dr. Verwoerd's death, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Douglas Smith said;
"To those who knew him personally, and I count myself as one of those who had this privilege, his deep sincerity in everything he undertook, his gentleness and his kindness towards all people, his championing of civilized and Christian ideals, and his wise counsels in times of peace and adversity will be greatly missed."
[edit] External Links
- Hendrik Verwoerd - Africa's Greatest Statesman
- Reconstituted National Party of South Africa - H.N.P.
- White World News - Global & Local News from a White Perspective
