F.A. Mouton

'A Volksvreemde Historian': J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton and the Production of History in an Alien Environment

Extracted from text ... 1. J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton, The Native Policy of the Voortrekkers: An Essay in the History of the Interior of South Africa, 1836-1858 (Cape Town, 1928); J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton, The Road to the North: South Africa 1852-1886 (London, New York and Toronto, 1937). 2. J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton, South Africa (London, 1934). 3. J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton, A Transvaal Jubilee, Being a History of the Church of the Province of South Africa in the Transvaal (London, 1928). 4. J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton, The South African Protectorates (London, 1929). 5. J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton, Crisis in the Desert, May-July 1942 (Cape Town, London and New York, 1952) and J.A.I. Agar-Hamilton, The Sidi ..

‘Survival in justice’: Apartheid and the Schalk Pienaar–Dr A.P. Treurnicht broedertwis, 1968–1978

Abstract Schalk Pienaar, a leading Afrikaner journalist, encouraged soul-searching amongst Afrikaners about their treatment of the black majority, while urging the necessity to adapt to a modern and changing world if they wanted to survive in Africa. Dr A.P. Treurnicht, an influential ultra-conservative establishment figure, and a future leader of the right-wing Conservative Party, on the other hand believed with evangelical fervour that any departure from the system of racial separation, however trivial, would endanger Afrikaner survival. The result was a long and bitter feud with Pienaar which had a profound influence on the apartheid state as it did much to discredit Treurnicht in the eyes of many Afrikaners, preparing them to accept political change.

‘No Prime Minister Could Want a Better Leader of the Opposition’: Sir De Villiers Graaff, the United Party and the Apartheid State, 1956–1977

ABSTRACT As leader of the United Party and the official parliamentary opposition between 1956 and 1977, Sir De Villiers Graaff bolstered the apartheid state and destroyed his own party in the process. This essay, by investigating Graaffs personality and politics, concludes that he was a man of integrity and decency who loathed the impractical, vicious and cruel nature of apartheid, but that his lack of political acumen, vision and ruthlessness, made him a disastrous party leader. Despite his honest intentions he was the best leader of the parliamentary opposition the apartheid state could have wished for.

'Dr. No': A.P. Treurnicht and the ultra-conservative quest to maintain Afrikaner supremacy 1982-1993

Abstract In 1982 Dr A.P. Treurnicht was expelled from the National Party for opposing President P.W. Bothas reforms as a threat to Afrikaner supremacy. He subsequently formed the ultra-conservative Conservative Party. Despite the sweeping political changes taking place in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s he remained adamant that rigid apartheid was the only means to ensure Afrikaner survival. Treurnichts faith in Verwoerdian policies was not the only reason for his inflexibility. In contrast to his public image as a strong and dynamic leader he was not temperamentally or psychologically equipped to be a party leader as he was overly sensitive to criticism, and craved adulation. His insecurity encouraged indecision and contributed to his inability to adapt to an unravelling apartheid state. In the process he fuelled the bitterness, angst and desperation of ultra-conservatives, creating a climate for right-wing militants to turn to violence. The majority of Afrikaners, however, rejected Treurnicht as an anachronistic figure and a threat to Afrikaner survival, and supported the reforms of Botha and F.W. de Klerk.