Prime Minister of South Africa. He served as the 4th Prime Minister of South Africa from June 4, 1948 to November 30, 1954. He was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch, and at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, where he received a doctorate in divinity in 1905. After coming back to South Africa, he became a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. Ten years later, he left the church to become the editor of Die Burger, a Cape Town newspaper that supported the National Party, which had been founded by J.B.M. Hertzog the previous year. He became a member of the party and was later elected to parliament in 1918. In 1924, he joined the Hertzog government as minister of the interior and served until 1934, when he left the government and founded the Purified National Party, which became the official opposition. His party later would rejoin Hertzog's party and became the Re-united National Party in 1939. In the 1948 election the Re-united National Party, in alliance with the smaller Afrikaner Party, appealed to Afrikaner and British racial sentiments and managed to win a narrow majority in the House of Assembly. This enabled him to form the first exclusively Afrikaner government of South Africa. From 1948 until the time of his retirement in late 1954, his administration was preoccupied with establishing absolute apartheid in South Africa. He retired in November of 1954 from politics and was succeeded by the more extreme Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom.
Prime Minister of South Africa. He served as the 4th Prime Minister of South Africa from June 4, 1948 to November 30, 1954. He was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch, and at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, where he received a doctorate in divinity in 1905. After coming back to South Africa, he became a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. Ten years later, he left the church to become the editor of Die Burger, a Cape Town newspaper that supported the National Party, which had been founded by J.B.M. Hertzog the previous year. He became a member of the party and was later elected to parliament in 1918. In 1924, he joined the Hertzog government as minister of the interior and served until 1934, when he left the government and founded the Purified National Party, which became the official opposition. His party later would rejoin Hertzog's party and became the Re-united National Party in 1939. In the 1948 election the Re-united National Party, in alliance with the smaller Afrikaner Party, appealed to Afrikaner and British racial sentiments and managed to win a narrow majority in the House of Assembly. This enabled him to form the first exclusively Afrikaner government of South Africa. From 1948 until the time of his retirement in late 1954, his administration was preoccupied with establishing absolute apartheid in South Africa. He retired in November of 1954 from politics and was succeeded by the more extreme Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom.
Bio by: Mr. Badger Hawkeye
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