Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (1901–1966) was a South African professor, editor, and politician who, as prime minister (1958–66), developed and applied the policy of apartheid. He was assassinated by Dimitri Tsafendas.
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Life
Dr. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was born in Amsterdam on 8 September 1901. His father was a Dutch missionary and took the family to South Africa in 1903. Verwoerd studied theology, then philosophy and psychology in Stellenbosch, after receiving his diploma he received his doctorate (both cum laude), turned down a scholarship to Oxford University and decided to continue his studies in Germany, including in Hamburg, Leipzig and Berlin, then also Great Britain and the United States.
From 1928 he worked as a professor of psychology and sociology in Stellenbosch. 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.
Assassination attempt
On 16 April 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.
Assassination
On 6 September 1966, Dimitri Tsafendas stabbed Dr. Verwoerd to death in the House of Assembly. Tsafendas was 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 10 September 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."
Family
Dr. Verwoerd married his fiancée Elizabeth “Betsie” Schoombie on 27 January 1927 in Hamburg. Two of her seven children played a role in South African politics - her daughter Anna (d. 2007) was the wife of Carel Boshoff, one of the leaders (along with H. F. Verwoerd the Younger) of the former conservative political party "Vereniging van Oranjewerkers" and founder of the Orania project.
Writings (excerpt)
- A method for the experimental production of emotions (1926)
- 'n Bydrae tot die metodiek en probleemstelling vir die psigologiese ondersoek van koerante-advert (1928)
- 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)
- Oor die persoonlikheid van die mens en die beskrywing daarvan (1930)
