Nie-eensgesindheid in eensgesindheid? Die verkiesing van Hendrik Verwoerd as eerste minister in 1958
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Date
2014
Authors
Duvenhage, Pieter
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State
Abstract
This contribution focuses on the inner-party discord of the National Party leading to the election of
Dr Hendrik Verwoerd as Prime Minister of South Africa in 1958. The National Party of 1958 was a
complex party characterized by a federal party structure, regional differences, different personalities
and even ideological undercurrents. In the first section of the contribution the focus falls on the intense
political discord within the NP of 1958 until the death of Strijdom on 24 August. In this section the
differences and election strategies of the different candidates come to the fore. In the second section
the election of Verwoerd as party leader, and more specifically Prime Minister, is reconstructed. The
third section focuses on the period from Verwoerd’s election as Prime Minister on 2 September until the
appointment of his first cabinet on 21 Oktober 1958. It is in this cabinet that he had to unite regional
differences, personalities, and even ideological undercurrents. This contribution ends (section 5) with
the first cabinet meeting of the Verwoerd era (November 1958) which offered an interesting ideological
twist – a twist that even found echoes in the later National Party leading up to 1994.
Description
Keywords
JG Strijdom, HF Verwoerd, CR Swart, E Dönges, Prime Minister, National Party, Cabinet, Caucus, Unanimity, Division, Albert Hertzog, Free market, Private initiative, Nationalism
Citation
Duvenage, P. (2014). Nie-eensgesindheid in eensgesindheid? Die verkiesing van Hendrik Verwoerd as eerste minister in 1958. Journal for Contemporary History, 39(1), 1-18.