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1899 Longlands Directory of Pretoria
November 8, 2010
Find those missing relatives in our over 2800 records of the 1899 Longlands Pretoria Directory.
This directory includes a host of famous people including Cornelis Vincent Van Gogh, brother of the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, President Kruger, William Juta Registrar of the High Court whose wife Louise was the sister of Carl Marx. As a bonus SPE Trichardt, grandson of Voortrekker Leader Louis Trichardt as well as many Jewish Immigrants and Muslim shopkeepers are found. Did your family live next door to any of these famous people?
This database is a Street Directory, Alphabetical directory and Classification of Professions and trades. Below is a list of the surnames included.
DF Malan
May 27, 2010
Daniel Francois Malan born at Allesverloren, near Riebeek West on 22nd May 1874 and died at 'Morewag', Stellenbosch on 7th February 1959, statesman, church and cultural leader, was the second child in a family of four sons and two daughters. His parents were Daniël François Malan (12.6.1844 – 22.9.1908) and Anna Magdalena du Toit (5.5.1847-12.6.1893), both of whom came from the Wellington district and were descendants of the French Huguenots. After living in the Wamakersvallei they settled on the farm Allesverloren in January 1872, where they were friends and neighbours of the parents of Jan C. Smuts.*
Malan's father was a well-to-do and respected farmer and churchman and an influential sup-porter of the Afrikanerbond. His mother, from whom he inherited his more striking traits of character and appearance, was a calm, lovable woman of few words but of equable temperament and sound judgement.
He went to school in Riebeek West, where the youthful T. C. Stoffberg* taught him and exercised a profound and enduring influence on him. His progress at school was, however, hampered by myopia and physical frailty. He was an average student and attained the School Higher Certificate in 1890. Realizing that he was not destined to be a farmer, his parents in 1891 sent him to Stellenbosch, where he obtained the Intermediate Certificate at the Victoria College. After his mother's death in 1893 his father married Esther Fourie of Beaufort West, who had a notable influence upon the young M.
Education
Having obtained a B.A. degree in 1895 he decided to become a minister of religion, and in 1896 he completed the Admission Course required for entrance to the Theological Seminary. Although as a student at the Victoria College he was rather aloof and uncommunicative, he was nevertheless methodical and disciplined. He did not take part in organized sport but enjoyed walking and debating.
At the invitation of J. C. Smuts, with whom he had often come into contact on his parents' farm when they were children, M. upon his arrival in Stellenbosch became a member of the Union Debating Society, of which he was chair-man in 1897 and 1899. He was also on the editorial staff of The Stellenbosch Students' Annual. An interesting article which he wrote entitled 'Our Situation' and dealing with the disquieting materialistic spirit of the times, appeared in the society's journal, in 1896.
In the same year M. taught for a term in Swellendam, after which he began his studies at the seminary, simultaneously enrolling at the college for the M.A. course in Philosophy, a degree he obtained towards the middle of 1899. As a student at the seminary he was strongly influenced by the devout example and inspiring lectures of Professor N. J. Hofmeyr.*
In the second half of 1900 he wrote the Candidates' Examination and left for Utrecht, Holland, in September to continue his theological studies. There he was greatly impressed by Professor J. J. P. Valeton, a leading exponent of the doctrines of the 'ethical school' in Theology, which accepted the Bible as a given reality without further argument.
When President S. J. P. Kruger* stopped over in Utrecht in December 1900 on his journey to The Hague and received an overwhelming ovation, M. was also present, and in January 1901 visited him in his hotel in Utrecht.
While he was a student in Utrecht M. under-took various journeys on the Continent and to England and Scotland, and in August 1902 re-presented South Africa at the world conference of the Students' Christian Association in Soro, Denmark. He also became acquainted with the aged Dutch theologian and poet Nicolaas Beets, who had a lasting influence on him.
M. was also much impressed by the visit which the Boer Generals, Louis Botha,* C. R. de Wet* and J. H. de la Rey,* paid to President Kruger in Utrecht on his birthday on 10.10.1902. He made several calls on President and Mrs M. T. Steyn* who were staying in Germany, and a firm friend-ship arose between them. Steyn fundamentally influenced his opinions on political and cultural matters both then and later.
Political Life
From then on he kept abreast of developments in the political and cultural life of South Africa and grew concerned about the submission and conciliatory attitude of some Afrikaners towards their political opponents after the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) had ended. In April 1904 he addressed two very illuminating letters to the editor of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant in which he expounded his view of the South African situation; he dealt in particular with the significance and power that were inherent in the Afrikaner's language and Afrikaner unity as a potential safeguard against Anglicization. These two aspects of Afrikaner identity were developed and formulated in a manner both arresting and, considering the political and cultural background of 1904, surprising. It was the first indication of M.'s extra-ordinary ability to put an idea on paper and convey it to others. These letters show that as early as 1904 M.'s views on the political and cultural situation in South Africa had assumed a definite shape.
On 20.1.1905 he became a Doctor of Divinity, with a thesis on Het idealisme van Berkeley (The Idealism of Berkeley), and in May, at the age of thirty-one, he was formally admitted to the ministry in Cape Town. At the invitation of the Reverend A. J. Louw* of Heidelberg, Transvaal, he was ordained on 29.7.1905 as an assistant preacher of the N.G. Kerk in that town, and for the first time came into contact with many people who still bore the physical and economic scars of the Second Anglo-Boer War. At the same time he became deeply aware of his bond with his people and of the necessity for them to close their ranks and stop niggling over principles, since this could endanger the preservation of the Afrikaner's identity.
After spending about six months in Heidelberg, M. having in 1905 accepted a call to Montagu was inducted on 16 2.1906, and there during his six-year stay began to apply himself to the problem of uplifting the impoverished Afrikaner. At the congregational level his main preoccupation was with mission work and poor-relief, and he maintained that the extent to which its people undertook such work determined the spiritual climate of a congregation.
It was as early as the first decade of this century, while serving the congregation of Montagu, that M. began to come to the fore as an academic, cultural and potential political leader. During the Synods of 1906 and 1909 he emphasized the fundamental importance of training Afrikaner teachers and advocated that a national educational ideal should be formulated. In August 1908, as general chairman of the Afrikaanse Taalvereniging, he made his famous plea for the recognition of Afrikaans as a written language, and in 1909 was active as a founder of De Zuid-Afrikaanse Akademie voor Taal, Letteren en Kunst (The South African Academy for Language, Literature and Art). At the Stu-dents Language Conference in Stellenbosch in April 1911 he delivered his inspiring address on 'Language and nationality'.
M. was also preoccupied with the idea of unity in the ecclesiastical field. During the Synod of 1909 he delivered a strong plea for closer links between the N.G. Kerke of the four colonies and represented the Cape Church in De Federale Raad der Kerken (Federal Council of Churches). He was the driving force behind the campaign for a church association, which, however, foundered in 1912 and became a reality only fifty years later in 1962, after his death.
The Spiritual Side
Of far-reaching importance for both the N.G. Kerk in the Union and the spiritual and cultural interests of the 'exiles', was the extended tour he undertook at the request of the Cape Church between July and November 1912. The object of this was to visit the congregations in Northern and Southern Rhodesia. The diary of his travels published in instalments in De Kerkbode and later in book form under the title Naar Congoland (infra), was extensively read and aroused widespread interest in the welfare of the Afrikaners in Rhodesia.
On 1.2.1913 M. became assistant preacher to the congregation of Graaff-Reinet, this being the year in which the estrangement between the Prime Minister, General Louis Botha, and General J. B. M. Hertzog* reached a crisis. M. was in sympathy with Hertzog's standpoint which was pro-South African in contrast to that of Botha whose policy was to conciliate Britain and the English-speaking population. He voiced his share in the church's opposition to the plans of the government, which aimed to establish an English-orientated teaching university for both language groups in Cape Town, and zealously strove to have the status of the Victoria College at Stellenbosch raised to that of a fully fledged national university. This goal was realized through legislation in 1916.
The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 shortly afterwards led to the unfortunate Rebellion in South Africa and to unhappy division and confusion among the Afrikaners, in the ecclesiastical as well as in other spheres. M., who was staying in Pretoria during the week-end of 18 to 20 December, tried in vain as one of a six-man deputation to obtain clemency for Commandant Jopie Fourie* who had been sentenced to death. When it seemed that the Rebellion with all its attendant bitterness would cause a schism in the N.G. Kerk, M. provided powerful leadership at the critical 'Ministers' Conference held in Bloemfontein in January 1915.
In 1914 the National Party (N.P.) was founded under the leadership of General Hertzog. The need for an influential newspaper to serve as a mouthpiece for the party led to the establishment of De Nationale Pers Beperkt at Stellenbosch, and through the mediation of W. A. Hofmeyr* in particular M. was earnestly re-quested to become editor of the newspaper. After seeking the advice of prominent politicians and church leaders he accepted the post and on 13.6.1915 delivered his farewell sermon to the congregation of Graaff-Reinet. The first issue of De Burger appeared on 26.7.1915. Since at a conference at Cradock in June 1915 M. had already been elected to the executive of the National Party, in practice he combined the editorship of De Burger and the leadership of the National Party in the Cape. As editor from 1915 to 1923, his editorials, written in a graceful, dignified style, gave direction to the national aspirations of the Afrikaner. De Burger rapidly gained wide respect in the world of journalism and an unusual status, despite its unenviable role in the war situation.
The Afrikaner's republican aspirations and South Africa's right to leave the British Empire often formed the core of M.'s editorials. His views played an important part in formulating party policy; this was particularly so after his election as chairman (and thus unofficial leader of the party in the Cape) at the Middelburg congress of the National Party in September 1915. Three months after leaving the service of the church M. was not only in the thick of politics but in the midst of the crisis with which the First World War (1914-18) and the Rebellion (1914) confronted the Afrikaner.
Influential leaders within the National Party were now anxious that M. should obtain a seat in the House of Assembly as soon as possible. Although he failed twice, first in Cradock in 1915 and then in Victoria West in 1917, in 1919 he became M.P. for Calvinia and retained this seat until 1938. Thereafter he represented the constituency of Piketberg until he retired from politics.
After the First World War the leaders of the National Party, encouraged by the statements of the Allied leaders, particularly the American President Woodrow Wilson and the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George,* on 'the right of self-determination of small nations', decided to send a delegation to the peace conference in Paris; its object would be to plead that the independence of the two former Boer republics should be restored. If this failed, greater constitutional independence for the Union of South Africa would be requested. M. and Advocate F. W. Beyers* represented the Cape in the 'Freedom Deputation' of 1919, which was led by General Hertzog. When the delegation returned without having accomplished anything, M. found that there was a strong desire for reunification among the Afrikaans-speaking people and he consequently began to direct his energies to-wards realizing this ideal. The right of nations to self-determination and the resultant Nationalist claim that the Union should have the right to secede from the British Empire became the major campaign issue in the so-called secession election of 1920. It resulted in a political stale-mate, and after an abortive attempt by Smuts to form a coalition government the Unionist Party disbanded and threw in their lot with the South African Party. A new election in February 1921 gave Smuts a healthy majority, but only threeand-a-half years later his government was defeated through an election agreement between General Hertzog and F. H. P. Creswell,* leader of the Labour Party. M. saw this as a partial victory for the reunion movement to welcome all those who loved their country.
In the cabinet which General Hertzog formed as Prime Minister, M. became Minister of Internal Affairs, Education and Public Health. Although not Deputy Prime Minister (this post was first occupied by Advocate Tielman Roos* and then by N. C. Havenga*), M. nevertheless became a prominent member of the cabinet. In government circles he was regarded as a farsighted political strategist and as such he moved into the forefront. He distinguished himself as an extraordinarily accomplished parliamentarian, an indomitable fighter and an unequalled debater. As a minister he gained a reputation for competent administration and unmitigated hard work, while in the various government departments under his control he was noted for his informed approach.
Among the most important bills which he piloted through parliament in the Pact Government, and in which he was strongly supported by Senator C. J. Langenhoven,* was the amendment to the Union Constitution (1925); in terms of this Afrikaans was recognized as an official language. This decision, which was unanimously carried in parliament, represented the fulfilment of the ideal for which M. had striven for twenty years. In addition he implemented the policy of bilingualism in the public service, over-hauled the public service administration and used the opportunity of obtaining improved facilities and greater financial support for higher and technical education. Immigration from certain countries was limited by means of the quota system. As regards the Indians M. acted in 1927 as chairman of the notable Cape Town conference between representatives of the South African and Indian governments; here he insisted that South Africa should give more generous financial assistance to Indians who wished to leave the Union of their own free will. In order to overcome the stalemate between the House of Assembly and the Senate (in which the opposition was in the majority), M., aided by a joint sitting of both Houses, piloted the Amendment Act on the Composition of the Senate through parliament. In terms of this the governor-general could dissolve the Senate within twelve days after a general election.
Between 1925 and 1927 M., who was the minister responsible, also handled the very delicate negotiations over the bill on South African citizenship and a national flag. The latter was introduced by M. during the parliamentary session of 1925, but was shortly after-wards withdrawn; this was in order to obtain a greater measure of co-operation from the other party, and also because General Smuts had come out in support of the principle. The following year, on 25.5.1926, M. introduced a similar bill, but the difference of opinions between the government and the opposition appeared to be so profound that he withdrew his proposal. Meanwhile a tremendous battle was in progress over this issue both outside parliament and within the Nationalist ranks. Two groups opposed the Nationalists : one wanted nothing but the preservation of the British flag, whereas the other was prepared to accept a new flag provided the Union Jack had a prominent place in it. Even among the Nationalists themselves there were serious differences of opinion. M. was not prepared to make any concessions, while the Prime Minister, encouraged by N. C. Havenga and Tielman Roos, was willing to make concessions to the opposing party. After many discussions the matter was referred to a Select Committee in 1926 and General Hertzog now took the matter in hand himself, M. retreating further and further into the background. Many Nationalists were disappointed that the Union Jack would appear in the Union flag. M. resigned himself to the position because he did not want to cause a schism in the ranks of the National Party. Accordingly he once again submitted a bill in this connection. It was passed on 23.6.1927 and the Union flag was officially hoisted for the first time on 31.5.1928. In the flag issue M. had taken the lead in creating the generally accepted symbol of nationhood and independence, but the struggle had indicated that there was no longer complete unanimity within the ranks of the National Party. A certain amount of estrangement and even mistrust among leading Nationalists had crept in.
After the election of June 1929, which this time brought the Nationalists to power with a clear majority, M. retained his portfolios. In 1930 he played a leading role in gaining White women the vote and placing the general election qualifications on an equal footing in all four provinces.
With the decline of the Labour Party, ally of the National Party, as well as internal squabbles within the party itself, in which Tielman Roos and a republican section were particularly involved, a gradual weakening of the governing party occurred. Moreover, a world-wide economic depression hit South Africa and was accompanied by a devastating drought. When Britain dropped the gold standard in September 1931, Tielman Roos, who had been appointed Appeal Judge in 1929, stormed into the political arena once again towards the end of 1932. His avowed aim was to get South Africa off the gold standard and bring about a coalition. The government was compelled to depart from its professed policy and drop the gold standard. The National Party now entered a period of crisis in its history. Hertzog and M. refused to accept Roos, but after strenuous political negotiations behind the scenes the Prime Minister in February 1933 declared himself willing to accept Smuts's offer of a coalition government.
M. displayed little enthusiasm for this move because he feared that it would jeopardise the Afrikaner's interests. Nevertheless he stood as a Coalition candidate for the election of May 1933, in which the Coalition parties achieved an overwhelming victory, but he refused to serve in the Coalition cabinet, although he continued to support Hertzog. He was opposed to further rapprochment between the National and South African Parties, for he feared that closer co-operation between them represented a threat to the principles and policy of his party.
After the election of 1933 a nation-wide movement arose to consolidate the existing political co-operation into an enduring fusion of the two parties. Time and again M. sounded a warning note and at the Cape congress of the National Party in October 1933 he asserted: 'Reunion means bringing together those who belong together by virtue of political conviction and this rules out the fusion of parties'. M. was convinced that fusion could not succeed, since en-during unity could not be cemented while Hertzog and Smuts differed basically over principles such as the divisibility of the crown, the right to remain neutral and the sovereign status of the Union. The Cape congress followed M.'s lead and he was now diametrically opposed to Hertzog, although negotiations between them continued. However, Nationalists in the other provinces ranged themselves behind Hertzog; thus the fusion of the National and South African Parties became an accomplished fact. The United South African National Party came into being on 5.12.1934, while the Cape National Party, led by M., maintained its identity. M., with eighteen followers, became the National opposition in the House of Assembly.
The years 1934-39 constituted a low ebb in the history of the National Party, but M. enjoyed the support of most Nationalist-orientated people in the Cape and leaned heavily on the influential Nasionale Pers. In addition, he had the efficient party organization in the Cape at his disposal. In these years the strife between the Fusionists and the Purified National Party was relentlessly sharp and often heated. It was expressed in the 1937 report of a Commission on the Coloured franchise which recommended that the Coloureds in all four provinces be granted the vote and that they be placed on the common voters' roll. Raising serious objections to this M. and his party demanded the political and residential segregation of the Coloureds. Another major bone of contention was the question of a republic, which for tactical reasons Hertzog had dropped for the time being since he did not regard it as practical policy, though the National Party was gradually moving in this direction. However, on the question of whether South Africa could remain neutral if Britain were to become involved in a war, Hertzog and M. did not disagree.
In the general election of 1938 the Nationalists increased the number of their seats in the House of Assembly to a still modest twenty-seven. The 247 000 votes this party acquired, as opposed to the 448 000 of the United Party, served as great encouragement to the National Party. Moreover, M. realised that time was on its side since it was clear to him that there was already a serious rift between Hertzog and Smuts over certain fundamental issues. The year 1938 was also the year of the Voortrekker Centenary and the Symbolic Ox-waggon Trek which served as a strong stimulus to the awakening of Afrikaner nationalism. It was at about this time that cultural societies became active and the Reddingsdaadbond did a great deal for the impoverished Afrikaner. In 1938 the Ossewa-Brandwag also came into being – a cultural organization aimed at strengthening the newly awakened enthusiasm for the Afrikaner cause. However, within two years it began to enter the political arena, making propaganda for republican government and later, during the war, even for a totalitarian state.
When the Second World War broke out on 3.9.1939 and it became known that the cabinet was divided on the question of South Africa's participation, M. immediately offered Hertzog his support in writing should he adopt a neutrality stand in parliament. On the next day M. took part in the parliamentary debate on this matter, supported Hertzog's neutrality motion and declared that in terms of the Statute of Westminster and the Status Act, South Africa had the right to remain neutral. If South Africa aided Britain because she had moral ties with that country, she would, according to M., be a country of slavery which no longer had its destiny in its own hands. Hertzog's neutrality motion, supported by M. and his followers, was nevertheless defeated by thirteen votes in the House of Assembly and Hertzog resigned as Prime Minister. A few days later ten thousand anti-war demonstrators met at Monumentkoppie near Pretoria to honour Hertzog and M. who became 'reconciled' there. From this moment on M. renewed his efforts to effect the reunion of all Afrikaners who were obliged by the declaration of war to leave their party and seek a new refuge. These were Nationalists who were still his supporters, and Hertzog's United Party followers. However, mutual distrust rendered his task very difficult.
In January 1940 the 'Herenigde Nasionale Party of Volksparty' (H.N.P. of V.) came into being, in which the followers of Malan and Hertzog found a political home and in which the republican ideal was incorporated in the programme of principles. Although M. was willing to give up the leadership of the new party to Hertzog, on 6.11.1940 the latter retired from politics owing to conflicting views, and in April 1941 M. became the leader of the H.N.P. of V.
The years from 1941 to 1943 were the bitterest and most difficult period of his political career. He not only had to contend with a divided Afrikanerdom but felt, as he had done thirty years before, that it devolved upon him to restore the shattered unity; now he was in the midst of a war-time situation in which he had to endure a great deal of opprobrium from the powerful United Party and its adherents who were in favour of the war. On another front he crossed swords with fellow Afrikaners who though really of the same persuasion envisaged a different approach to the goal of freedom; for instance in 1941, under the leadership of Dr J. F. J. van Rensburg,* the bellicose Ossewa-Brandwag, which had originally supported M. as 'Leader of the People', branched out in another direction and embroiled itself in politics, eventually becoming a threat to the H.N.P. of V. Other dissentient opposition groups such as Advocate Oswald Pirow's* New Order pressed for National Socialism. After Hertzog had retired Havenga, his loyal follower and confidant, formed an organization of his own and called it the Afrikaner Party, while many Afrikaans-speaking people supported General Smuts's war effort. Afrikaners were divided in spirit and for M., to whom Afrikaner unity had become a passion, it was a dark, humiliating time. In August 1941 he found himself compelled to confront the numerically strong Ossewa-Brandwag, from which a growing stream of Nationalists resigned and supported him.
Although in the general war-time election of 1943 M.'s party gained only two more seats, the result was significant, since all the dissenting groups on the 'national' side, which had opposed M. and put up their own candidates, were completely eliminated. This meant that the H.N.P. of V. now formed a united and solid opposition in parliament. Under the circumstances it was a victory for M.'s leadership. Furthermore, the result of the by-election in Wakkerstroom a year later was of far-reaching significance to M. and his followers and a source of consternation to Smuts and his party, since the H.N.P. of V. wrested this constituency from the United Party. Marshalling its forces and improving its organization to a point of unequalled efficiency, the H.N.P. of V. now made intensive preparations for the general election of 1948. M., who realized the necessity for Afrikaner unity if the election was to be won, succeeded in 1947 in concluding an election agreement with Havenga and his Afrikaner Party. This signified the reunion of two wings of Afrikaner Nationalism which had become temporarily estranged. It also brought the hard core of Hertzog supporters back into the arena, which in itself was one of M.'s major achievements as a leader and political strategist.
He concentrated particularly on government policy and measures relating to the racial problem, Communism, the economic interests of the Union, the handling of matters such as health, food and housing and the interests of the returned soldiers. Smuts, on the other hand, was in a strong position as a war hero and inter-national political figure who had reached the zenith of his fame in 1945 and enjoyed a position of unassailable authority in his own party. In the light of the well-known difference in approach to the racial problem between Smuts and his confidant and right-hand man, J. H. Hofmeyr,* M., powerfully supported by the Nationalist newspapers, let slip no opportunity of pointing out this weakness in the government. Thus the racial question, to which M. offered 'apartheid and guardianship' as a solution, be-came the overriding factor in the election. The word 'apartheid' had already been coined by a party member, but it was M. who formulated the policy attached to the word and gave it meaning.
The outcome of the election of 26.5.1948 was a great surprise because the H.N.P. of V. gained seventy seats and the Afrikaner Party nine, a total of seventy-nine. This gave M. and Havenga a majority of five over the United Party, the Labourites and the three Native representatives combined. Smuts called the result a freak, while M. termed it a miracle of God.
When at the age of seventy-four M. became the fourth Prime Minister of the Union, every-one considered this achievement a personal triumph. He formed a cabinet which, for the first time in history, consisted exclusively of Afrikaans-speaking persons; it was, at the same time, also the first to be fully bilingual. Havenga became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
The first five years of M.'s premiership were exceptionally stormy. He was continually attacked by his political opponents abroad and at home, particularly by the powerful opposition press. In addition the H.N.P. of V. in spite of the election results found itself in a vulnerable position, being in the minority in the Senate. M. was, however, determined to remain in power and the H.N.P. of V., aided by the deciding vote of the president of the Senate, did on a number of occasions succeed in getting its programme of legislation through. In 1949 M. achieved the measure which gave South-West Africa six members in the House of Assembly and four senators in the Union parliament. The election of 30.8.1950 in South-West Africa was won by the Nationalists in all six constituencies and the position of the H.N.P. of V. in the Senate was greatly strengthened by the election of two Nationalist senators and the appointment of another two for South-West Africa. But the closer links between South-West Africa and the Union meant that the Malan government be-came embroiled in a continual struggle with the United Nations.
The question of incorporating the British protectorates in the Union, previously raised by a South African government, was taken up again by M. but rejected by the British government.
Since at this juncture there were no real differences of principle between the H.N.P. of V. and the Afrikaner Party, M. and Havenga decided in August 1951 to fuse them. It was undoubtedly M.'s confidence in and respect for Havenga which rendered this fusion possible. Once again known as the 'National Party' (N.P.), this was the name which had served to unite those of national sentiments between 1914 and 1940, and was another milestone in M.'s struggle to 'bring together those who belong together by inner conviction'.
M. came to power at a fortunate time from an economic point of view. In July 1949, with the consent of the International Monetary Fund and the Union Treasury, the gold mines were allowed to sell a limited amount of gold at higher prices than the then prevailing sum of thirty-five dollars per ounce. On 19.9.1949 M. devalued the Union's rate of exchange, by which the price of gold in sterling rose from 172s. 6d. per ounce to 248s. 2d. The resulting economic revival and industrial expansion made the Malan regime more acceptable to the general public.
Legislation submitted by his government between 1948 and 1953 was fought tooth and nail and sometimes clause by clause by the United Party and its press. Nevertheless the government succeeded in placing various radical measures on the statute books: the right of appeal to the British Privy Council was abolished; through the Population Registration Act all people over the age of sixteen were classified and registered as White, Coloured, Bantu or Asiatic and issued with identity cards; through the Group Areas Act the government was em-powered to reserve certain parts as residential areas for specific population groups; the act which forbade mixed marriages (between Whites and Non-Whites) and the Suppression of Communism Act were adopted as had been promised in the election (this act, among other things, declared the Communist Party in South Africa an illegal organization, membership of which would be punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment); the Immorality Act was passed and in terms of the Union Citizenship Act dual citizenship (that of Britain and the Union of South Africa) was discontinued and replaced by South African only. With the passing of the Public Holidays Act, Van Riebeeck Day, 6 April, and Kruger Day, 10 October, became national holidays and through the adoption of three important Bantu acts the influx of Bantu into the urban areas was controlled, provision being made for essential services in Bantu townships.
At the Commonwealth Conference of 1949 M. made an important contribution towards gaining Commonwealth members the right to adopt a republican form of government, while the adjective 'British' was no longer used to describe the Commonwealth. In the same year M. piloted the Citizenship Act (Act 44 of 1949) through parliament. In terms of this a British subject was to reside in the Union for four years (it had previously been two) before he could obtain Union citizenship; this in any event depended on the registration certificate which the Minister of Internal Affairs might or might not issue. Four years later M. also amended the royal title attached to the Union by giving it a purely South African character, thus distinguishing it from the titles used by other members of the Commonwealth. It was to be Elizabeth II, Queen of the Union of South Africa and of Her Other Kingdoms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth.
On the series of apartheid measures introduced by the Malan government, that which was em-bodied in the Separate Representation of Voters Act in 1951 was most vehemently attacked by the opposition. In terms of this the Coloureds were taken off the common voters' roll and placed on a separate one. This legislation gave rise to a protracted constitutional crisis in which the question of the sovereignty of parliament was involved. M. attempted to solve the problem by means of legislation which would make parliament a 'High Court' for purposes of Coloured representation, but the attempt failed. His own followers were unhappy about the method employed and there was serious criticism of the measure from both the opposition and the National Party itself, while a court decision declared the method invalid as a constitutional solution. To this M. replied that he accepted the Court of Appeal decision provisionally, but that he would take the matter to the voters in the next election. Meanwhile, the apartheid and anti-communist legislation of the Malan government paved the way for a resistance movement, the 'Torch Commando', and for demonstrations and the threat of strikes, but M. refused to be intimidated.
The results of the 1953 election strengthened the government's hand considerably, since M. now had a majority of twenty-nine (excluding the Speaker) in the House of Assembly. In the light of his statement, before the election, on the decision of the supreme court, M. regarded the election results as a mandate to implement his party's racial policy.
During the first parliamentary session after the election M. tried in vain, by joint sittings of both Houses, to re-enact the Separate Representation of Voters Act, to place the sovereignty of parliament beyond all doubt and to declare the testing right of the courts invalid.
After the election of 1953 he left for London where he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I.I and the Commonwealth Conference. He also paid a highly successful visit to Israel. In fact by 1953 M. was a far less controversial figure both in South Africa and abroad than he had formerly been. His stature as a statesman had increased and he compelled respect in circles other than those of his political supporters. His leadership was confirmed once and for all by the great victory won by the National Party in the general provincial elections of August 1954. After resigning as leader of the Nationalists in the Cape in November 1953, M. astonished the country on 11.10.1956 with the dramatic announcement of his intention to retire from politics altogether on 30 November. He himself would have preferred Havenga to Advocate J. G. Strijdom as his successor; this was mostly out of personal loyalty to Havenga and the fact that he was Deputy Prime Minister. But on 30 November the party caucus designated Strijdom as the new Prime Minister.
After his retirement M. settled at Stellenbosch where he began writing his autobiography, which he was unable to complete because of two strokes in 1958 which partially paralyzed him. After his death the work was completed by his friends. He died at his home after suffering another stroke and was buried in the Stellenbosch cemetery.
M. was the successor to the Generals in South African politics. Since he devoted his life to the study of Theology and Political Science his absorption in these subjects had a considerable influence on his career and outlook, and throughout his life he was the champion of Afrikaans culture and Afrikaner nationalism. His leadership and personal example were an inspiration to the Afrikaner people.
As early as 1915 it had become a passion with him to heal the schism among Afrikaners, and the political division at intervals among the Nationalists frequently placed him in the fore-front of reconciliation and reunion movements. He defined his credo for national unity in the exhortation, 'Bring together those who belong together by inner conviction'. Moreover, he considered a republic, free of constitutional ties with Britain, essential to amalgamate the two White language groups into one nationally conscious people.
While still a member of the opposition M. had a considerable influence on South African politics. His power lay in his objectivity, patience and remarkable administrative ability, added to a gift of extraordinary eloquence, which evinced itself early in his career. He had a deep, sonorous voice, his preparation was thorough, his logic impeccable. These things, added to his powers of persuasion and impressive personality on a platform, contributed to make him one of the greatest orators in South African parliamentary history. M. was a true democrat who would not act unless he was sure of the feelings of the Afrikaner people, from whose response his leadership grew spontaneously. At no stage did he attempt to force it upon them.
As a man he was imperturbable, and although outwardly he was aloof and reserved his friends and relatives found in him a warm humanity and a spontaneous sense of humour. In his public actions he seldom betrayed his feelings and moods and consequently cartoons in opposition newspapers often depicted him as a sphinx.
He was of average height and after 1920 developed a burly physique. When he was a clergy-man he cultivated a heavy, dark moustache. He went bald at an early age and wore spectacles with very thick lenses all his life.
The University of Stellenbosch, of which he was chancellor from 1941 to 1959, awarded him an honorary doctorate, as did the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town.
M.'s publications include the following: Het idealisme van Berkeley (1905); Naar Congoland (1913) and Afrikaner-volkseenheid (1959). A volume comprising thirty of his most famous speeches appeared in 1964 under the title Glo in 'n yolk, edited by S. W. Pienaar and J. J. J. Scholtz.
In 1926 M. married Martha Margaretha Elizabeth van Tonder (nee Zandberg), and they had two sons. She died in 1930 and in 1937 he married Maria-Anne Sophia Louw (t1973) of Calvinia. This marriage was childless, but in 1948 they adopted a German orphan girl.
The best portraits of M. were painted by G. Wylde and I. Henkel. That by Wylde hangs in the Parliamentary Buildings, while Henkel's was in the possession of Mrs Malan and hung in their home 'Môrewag' in Stellenbosch. Of the busts of him by Coert Steynberg and Henkel, Steynberg's is in the possession of the University of Stellenbosch. There are four copies of the striking Henkel bust, one of which is in the D. F. Malan Museum of Stellenbosch University and another in Parliament Buildings, Cape Town.
The D. F. Malan Museum in the Carnegie Library, University of Stellenbosch, was opened in 1967. It consists of a museum section, an exact replica of M.'s study at 'Morewag', and a well arranged archive section. When his hundredth birthday was commemorated on 22.5.1974, the D. F. Malan Centre at the University of Stellenbosch was opened.
Was your Ancestor a Murderer?
June 15, 2009
Daisy de Melker
From the beginning of time, there have been murderers and psychopaths – if we delved deeply enough into our family we may find that somewhere along the way one of our ancestors either killed someone for revenge, love or by mistake. We now take a look at some famous and not so famous South African murderers – perhaps you are related to one of them?
DAISY LOUISA DE MELKER was born on 1st July 1886 at Seven Fountains, near Grahamstown. She was the daughter of William Stringfellow Hancorn Smith from Grahamstown and Fanny Augusta Mathilda Bird from Ascension Island.
At the age of ten she went to live with her father, who had settled in Bulawayo, and was educated there and at the Good Hope Seminary in Cape Town.
She completed a nursing course at the Berea Nursing Home, Durban. On 3rd March 1909 she married William Alfred Cowle, aged 35, a municipal plumber of Johannesburg. There were five children borne from that marriage, of whom all but one, named Rhodes, died in infancy. William Cowle enjoyed good health until 11th January 1923, when he took Epsom salts prepared by his wife and developed symptoms which soon proved fatal. The post mortem report attributed his death to chronic nephritis and cerebral haemorrhage. Mrs. Cowle inherited £1 250, a house in Bertrams, Johannesburg, and received 550 pounds from the municipal provident fund.
Daisy De Melker
On the 1st January 1926 she married Robert Sproat, a bachelor, aged 46. He, too, was a municipal plumber and was worth about 4 000 pounds in gold shares, municipal stock and cash in a building society. On 6th November 1927 he fell ill after drinking a glass of beer. The doctor diagnosed arteriosclerosis with cerebral haemorrhage. In terms of Sproat’s will his wife was paid about £5 000.
Before long she married again. Daisy married her third husband on 21st January 1931. Clarence Sydney de Melker was a Springbok rugby footballer of 1906 and also a plumber. Rhodes Cowle joined them. He had long been indulged by his mother; often morose, quarrelsome and ill-behaved, he once assaulted her. On 25th February 1932 she visited a Johannesburg pharmacy, bought white arsenic and signed the poison register ‘D. L. Sproat’. Within a week Rhodes fell ill and three days later he died.
A doctor certified death to be due to cerebral malaria. A suspicious relative went to the police and the bodies of Cowle, Sproat and Rhodes were exhumed. In the first two, tiny particles of strychnine were recovered. Rhodes was found to have died of arsenical poisoning. At first the prosecution could not clinch the case, as no purchase or possession of strychnine or arsenic could be traced to Mrs. De Melker. Then a photograph of her, captioned ‘Daisy de Melker’, appeared in a newspaper. The pharmacist recognised her as the woman to whom he had sold arsenic. He supplied the missing link in the evidence.
Her trial began on 17th October 1932 in the Witwatersrand division of the Supreme Court and lasted for thirty-nine days. She was defended by the brilliant advocate H.H. Morris and was tried by Judge L. Greenberg and two assessors. The judge’s finding was that there was insufficient evidence to prove she had murdered her two husbands, but that there was no doubt she had murdered her son. A petition for mercy on Christmas Eve of 1932 was rejected and she was executed on 30th December the same year.
An unattractive woman of medium height, with bushy hair and cold, penetrating blue eyes, at no time did Daisy de Melker admit her guilt or show any sign of remorse. She accepted the death penalty calmly and courageously.
Hancorn Smith Family Tree
Report on medicine murders (1951); Hedley Chilvers: Out of the crucible (1929); Napier Devitt: Celebrated South African trials (1941); H. H. Morris: The first forty years (1947); Benjamin Bennett: Up for murder (1934); id.: Freedom or the gallows (1957); Too late for tears (1948); The clues condemn (1949); The evil that men do (1950); Genius for the defence (1959); Murder will speak (1962); The amazing case of the Baron von Schauroth (1966); H. J. May and I. Hamilton: The Foster gang (1966).
Dorothea Kraft
DOROTHEA KRAFT (later Van der Merwe), the first woman to be hanged after Union, lived on the farm Treurfontein in the Lichtenburg district in 1914. When Louis Tumpowski, a Polish Jew, aged 55, called at the farm as a pedlar, she was divorced and having trouble with her Bantu labourers. Turnpowski offered to manage the farm and she agreed. His attorneys drew up a lease under which he was to pay an annual rental and have the right eventually to buy the property.
For several years he and Mrs. Kraft lived as man and wife. Then he informed her that he intended to exercise his option and buy the farm at the agreed figure, which was below the ruling price. She hired a Coloured witch-doctor, Jim Burds, to induce Tumpowski to marry her by antenuptial contract. When Burds’s potions proved ineffective, she enlisted the aid of Hermanus Lambertus Swartz, a distant relative, who had deserted from the army during the war and turned up at Treurfontein.
On the night of 2nd February 1918, at the height of a great storm, Burds arrived on the farm at Mrs. Kraft’s urgent request. He struck Tumpowski on the head with a heavy stick. Swartz then tied a leather thong round the man’s neck and slit his throat. The body was buried in an ash-pit. Tumpowski’s sudden disappearance caused little comment. Mrs. Kraft moved to another district, remarried and became known as Mrs. Van der Merwe.
Tumpowski’s sister in Johannesburg became suspicious when her letters were returned, and went to the police. A prolonged search and widespread excavations on the farm were unsuccessful until, two years later, a violent wind-storm swept Treurfontein and torrential rain caused a deep subsidence in the ash-pit. The police dug into it and found the body. Dorothea van der Merwe and Hermanus Swartz stood trial at Potchefstroom on 13th June 1921 and were sentenced to death. Burds, who had turned king’s evidence, was acquitted.
MARIA HELENE GERTRUIDA CHRISTINA LEE (born Van Niekerk) was four times married, first when she was 16, and three times divorced. One of her husbands, Jan de Klerk Lee, a Pretoria metal-worker whose name she kept, died in 1941, ostensibly of tuberculosis. From 1946 to 1947 Mrs. Lee worked for a firm of jewellers in Cape Town, from whom she stole jewellery worth several thousand pounds. At the time she was living with her latest lover, Alwyn Smith, a discharged soldier, who sponged on her.
When her thefts were discovered and she was dismissed, his use as travelling salesman for stolen jewellery ended. Mrs. Lee, who by now had made another male conquest, began to add ant poison to Smith’s food. He went into a decline and died on 2nd May. The doctor suspected poisoning and refused a death certificate. A post-mortem was held. Police investigations lasted months and Mrs. Lee was arrested in Pretoria on 14th October.
In the Pretoria central prison, where she was lodged before being remanded to Cape Town for trial, she confided to her cell companion that she had given Smith doses of arsenic. This woman told the police. The trial opened in Cape Town on 6th April 1948 and on 10th May Mrs. Lee was sentenced to death. An appeal was dismissed and she was hanged on 17th September 1948.
MARGARET ELIZABETH RHEEDER was avaricious and sex-hungry. A daughter of Clarence and Grace Harker, she was born at Platbos, near Keurbooms River, Knysna on 6th September 1922 and grew up in grinding poverty. At 21 she married a man who soon left her to support herself and two baby daughters.
After some casual love-affairs she divorced her husband and on 6th September 1952 married Benjamin Fredenman Rheeder, aged 39, formerly a farmer. They lived in Port Elizabeth. She disliked her step-children, Rheeder’s daughters by his previous marriage, and this led to frequent quarrels. It was, however, her sex urges that hastened the crisis. Rheeder surprised her with a paramour one night and thrashed her. On 27th April 1957 she bought a bottle of ant-poison. Two days later her husband fell ill at work, and he died on 7th May. A doctor certified that the deceased had suffered acute gastro-enteritis and then heart failure. A police check of poison registers revealed the woman’s purchase of ant-poison containing arsenic.
Exhumation of the body established that Ben Rheeder had died of arsenical poisoning. The trial was held in Port Elizabeth and Margaret Rheeder was sentenced to death and hanged on 6th May 1958.
Murder Mania
A number of mass murders have occurred in South Africa during the past half-century. They were mainly due to self-absorbed brooding over fancied slights, insults or wrongs that led to an outbreak of vengeful violence.
STEPHANUS SWART, killer of five policemen, his wife, two neighbours and three Bantu, declared that he could get no justice from the courts. He was a hard, embittered man. In 1927, at the time of his crimes, he was farming at Potter’s Hill near Majuba on the Natal-Transvaal border. His loss of a civil lawsuit determined him to avenge himself on the world. He assaulted a relative and was jailed for 18 months.
After his release he committed a serious sexual offence on a relative, fired a shot at a man while he awaited trial, and heard that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He sent a message to the police that he would shoot anyone who came to fetch him. Ignoring the threat, a police posse set out for Potter’s Hill on the morning of 6 th May 1927 to apprehend Swart. Warned of their approach, Swart crept from his farmhouse unseen, outflanked the police and, taking them in the rear, shot five of them dead. He then set out on horseback for Charlestown, where he killed his wife, who was being sheltered by friends, and other innocent people who crossed his path. Trapped by a search party soon afterwards, he put a bullet through his brain.
CORNELIUS JOHANNES PETRUS VAN HEERDEN, aged 22, a railwayman who lived with his parents on the outskirts of Bethlehem, Orange Free State, in 1931, also had unpleasant legal experiences which had stirred feelings of persecution in him. He held up and killed a commercial traveller, stole his car, and shot down a former member of the Bethlehem town council. He continued to fire indiscriminately at a Bantu whom he met on the road and left a trail of dead and dying until he drove into a ditch and shot himself.
PIETER LUBBE, who farmed near Fauresmith in 1953, was in a morbid, prolonged fit of sulks before he gave way to his murderous impulses. Three months previously he had had a nervous breakdown and had been treated by a psychiatrist. He then fell under the influence of some religious sect and began to blame his family for the hardships ‘thrust upon him by God’. He threatened suicide several times -but not until he had ‘cleansed’ his farm of ‘everything impure’. In the ‘impurities’ he included his wife and children. He shot and killed six members of his family and then turned his gun on himself.
PETRUS LAFRAS LOMBARD, aged 48, a farmer near Morgenzon in the Ermelo district, in 1954 assaulted a Bantu who subsequently died. He regarded the court’s penalty – a £100 fine and a suspended sentence of imprisonment – as an injustice and bitter humiliation. He shot another Bantu who had struck him. Then he went berserk, killed five other Bantu and wounded four more. He was cornered while attempting to get away, and committed suicide.
PIERRE CORNEILLE FACULYS BASSON was a different type of mass murderer. He killed a dozen victims, but not in anger. His crimes were inspired by greed and executed with cunning and deliberation. Born in 1880, he showed cruelty at an early age. Aware of the advantages of insurance, he, when he secured the proceeds of his father’s policy, insured his 17-year-old brother Jasper for £3 500 and paid the first year’s premium. Then, inviting Jasper to go fishing at Gordon’s Bay on 14th February 1903, he murdered him.
The body was never found. The insurance company at first opposed Basson’s claim, but was ordered by the courts to pay the full amount of the policy. Basson believed that there was money to be made by offering loans on easy terms on the security of the cession of an insurance policy on the debtor’s life. Several of Basson’s friends (and debtors) were found dead, shot or drowned, and he was paid their insurance cover. In no case could it be proved that he was responsible for their sudden deaths.
The murder of Wilhelm Schaefer, aged 54, who farmed Highlands on the Cape Flats, finally led to Basson’s undoing. He negotiated with Schaefer for the purchase of Highlands, although he had no money to clinch the deal, and inveigled Schaefer to his home, where he overpowered him with chloroform and strangled him with a cord. The body was stripped and lowered at night into a deep hole. A Bantu woman passing by saw the grisly burial and informed the police. When they arrived at his home, Basson watched the digging party from a hiding-place. He locked himself in his bedroom and committed suicide.
Murder and politics
Two characters in South African criminal history were fortuitously linked with the lives of important political personalities. One was Franz Ludwig Kurtze, alias Karl Brown, also known as Baron von Veltheim; the other was William Robert Clem Foster. Their deeds had repercussions in the political field which neither of them could have foreseen.
VON VELTHEIM, international crook, bigamist and swindler, was, according to himself, invited to South Africa in 1897 by the mining magnate Barney Barnato. He blackmailed Barnato’s nephew, the millionaire Woolf Joel, sending him letters signed ‘Kismet’. He demanded £11 000 and ten per cent of the ‘millions’ the house of Joel would make on the stock exchange for ‘secret information’ supplied in advance. Joel inserted a notice in The Star inviting ‘Kismet’ to negotiate with him.
Von Veltheim turned up saying that he was the go-between for ‘Kismet’. Joel refused to be blackmailed or to participate in any plot and ordered Von Veltheim to leave. On 14th March 1898 Von Veltheim returned to ‘negotiate’ and offered to take a smaller sum in exchange for his silence. Defied again, he whipped out a revolver and shot Joel dead. Von Veltheim was arrested, but insisted that Joel had fired at him first and that he had returned the fire in self-defence.
In London, New York and Paris the murder was at first thought to have originated in ‘Reformer’ activities, which had been nipped in the bud, and the share-market slumped. Excitement rose to fever pitch on Von Veltheim’s declaration that he had been encouraged to enter the Transvaal from Bechuanaland to plot against the State at the instance of the mining magnates. He was tried, but the jury returned a verdict of not guilty and the judge had to discharge him. Although Von Veltheim may have exaggerated or invented his role of a political catspaw, there is little doubt that his long and sensational trial and plausible story of an anti-Republican plot served to heighten the Government’s mistrust of the Reformers and the magnates and to keep aflame passions that were soon to erupt in the Second Anglo-Boer War.
There were at the time many rumours of a political plot and a conspiracy, even of a design to assassinate President Kruger or members of the Executive Council. Of these rumours C. P. Bresler, Q.C., later wrote in his book Lineage of conflict (1952), after a careful analysis of the evidence: ‘ … one is not surprised that the learned judge directed the jury that the letters’ (written by Von Veltheim to Joel, demanding money with menaces) did not appear to him to have had any political background and that he did not think that there had been a conspiracy…
The Foster Gang
WILLIAM FOSTER swore vengeance on society when his younger brother was sent to prison on account of a hold-up. Between the time of his vow and its fulfilment, eleven people lost their lives. Foster, born in 1886, was headstrong and undisciplined. After several brushes with the law and a taste of prison, he developed into an embittered juvenile delinquent. He graduated to big crime in 1913 when he organised a hold-up at a jeweller’s shop in Longmarket Street, Cape Town. With his brother and another accomplice he stole £5000 worth of jewellery, but they were caught and sent to prison for 12 years.
Foster insisted that this was a cruel and savage punishment for his brother, a first offender, who had played only a minor part in the affair. After serving nine months, William Foster escaped from prison and joined John Maxim, a Texan cowboy and criminal, and a 19 year-old rascal, Carl Mezar. They formed the ‘Foster gang’ and embarked on a systematic campaign of burglary with violence. They broke into a bank at Boksburg and shot a man dead during their escape. They blew open safes in post offices and, on 13th September 1914, burgled a bottle-store in Doornfontein. They killed two policemen who attempted to arrest them and escaped on a motor-cycle.
Foster and his associates lay low for a while at their base, a house in Regent’s Park, Johannesburg. With Foster were his wife and their baby daughter. When they were traced, Foster shot a detective dead, and the gang escaped in a car with false number-plates. Police found the house crammed with stolen property, false moustaches, tubes of face-paints and hair-dyes. A cordon was drawn round the town and roads leading to Reef towns and the country were patrolled. Cars were stopped and searched.
Anyone who ignored a challenge was to be fired on. Dr. Gerald Grace, on his way to the East Rand to answer an urgent call, did not know of Foster’s latest exploits or hear an order to halt. A volley was fired into his car and he was killed.
In a similar way Gen. J. H. de la Rey was killed while on his way, with Gen. C. F. Beyers, to Potchefstroom. The shooting of Gen. De la Rey caused a furore as it was a time of unrest and, somewhat later, open rebellion, and some people at first inclined to the belief that it was more than an accident. Meanwhile, Foster, Maxim and Mezar had abandoned their car and taken refuge in a cave on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
They were besieged by the police for many hours, but Foster’s wife and child were permitted to join him when he offered to surrender to her and no one else. Other members of the family, allowed to enter the cave to reason with Foster, emerged with the child. Immediately afterwards shots were heard. Foster, his wife, Maxim and Mezar were found dead. Maxim had acted as executioner and then turned the revolver on himself.
Unusual murders
The records of murder in South Africa are studded with unusual trials, unexpected verdicts, and bizarre means of death. The rarest type of murder is matricide. The strangest weapons used have included dynamite, poisoned arrows used by Bushmen against police patrols, and blazing pyres on which victims of witchcraft and superstition have perished.
PETRUS STEPHANUS FRANCOIS HAUPTFLEISCH , the matricide, was a soldier of the First World War who lived with his aged mother at Richmond (Cape) in 1924. He bore her a grudge for blacklisting him, cutting off his liquor supplies. Also, she possessed £300. He throttled his mother, placed the body on its side on a built-up hearth, sprinkled it with petrol and ignited the vapour with a match. He intended in this way to suggest an accident after his mother had had a fatal heart attack while cleaning the stove with petrol. Lividity patches on the back of the body, however, proved that Mrs. Hauptfleisch could not have died in the position in which she was found. A post-mortem established beyond doubt that throttling was the cause of death. Hauptfleisch was hanged on 23rd December 1924.
HUIBRECHT JACOB DE LEEUW , town clerk of Dewetsdorp, chose dynamite for his crime. To destroy evidence of his embezzlement of town funds, he blew up the town hall and fatally injured the three members of the finance committee who had been deputed to examine the books. Having previously experimented with the explosive properties of dynamite, he himself had remained near an exit and had escaped serious wounding. His experiments and timely escape were to prove decisive evidence of a murder plan. De Leeuw, hanged on 30th September 1927, was one of the few murderers who did not question the justice of the penalty. In any list of unusual verdicts must be included those on the man who was sentenced to death twice, and those on the man who was discharged twice on the same charge of murder.
ALFRED PERCIVAL VON ZELL, an eccentric megalomaniac, shot his wife in Pretoria on the night of 21st April 1952. The defence failed to show that he had acted on an irresistible impulse or in a state of mind providing extenuation. The jury found him guilty and he was condemned to death. The Appellate Division set aside the sentence and directed the judge to pass another on the basis that the jury had, in fact, found various extenuating circumstances. The judge offered to hear mitigating evidence from Von Zell, but when this offer was rejected he re-imposed the death penalty. Von Zell spent nine months in the condemned cell before he went to the gallows on 13th November 1953.
THOMAS ANDREW KERR was tried for the rape and murder of Edith Pinnock, aged nine, on 8th October 1907. Her beaten and outraged body was found in a cellar beneath the golf club-house at Grahamstown. At the conclusion of the trial the jury were unable to agree on a verdict and were discharged. The attorney general withdrew the indictment, but Kerr was retried at Cape Town, on the same facts, for rape and murder. This time he was found not guilty, acquitted and released from further prosecution.
Unsolved murders
JACOBA (‘BUBBLES’) SCHROEDER, an attractive ‘good-time girl’, was the victim of an unknown killer. Her body was found on Wednesday morning, 17th August 1949, in a plantation near Johannesburg. She was lying on her back as though she had been carried over someone’s shoulder and then carefully laid out. She was hatless and her shoes, bag and coat were missing.
In her mouth were several bits of hard, clay-like material from a near-by heap of lime. According to the post-mortem she had died of asphyxia. Police questioned the youth at whose home, in an affluent suburb, ‘Bubbles’ had been entertained on the Monday night. They also questioned his 20-year-old cousin, who had driven her part of the way to her flat. The youths were arrested, but there were no clues to link them with the crime and they were discharged after a preparatory examination.
Taxi murders
JAMES ARTHUR DE VILLIERS, of Cape Town, answered a call at 9:40 on Friday night, 9th August 1929. When he reached the address given in Salt River he found he had been hoaxed – no one there wanted a taxi. Setting out to return to the rank, he was probably picked up by the man who had lured him to Salt River with the bogus call and awaited the opportunity to hail him. An hour later De Villiers was found shot dead near the Woltemade cemetery. He had been robbed of his takings. His taxi was found abandoned 3 km away on the Esplanade. A spent cartridge case lay under the seat.
At 9:30 the following night a masked man, pointing an automatic, attempted to hold up customers at a hotel in Newlands. When someone lurched toward him he turned, fired a shot that narrowly missed the barman, and darted into the street. In the bar the police picked up a cartridge-case that had almost certainly been ejected from the same weapon that had killed De Villiers. A series of other hold-ups followed, but the bandit, who was most likely the murderer, was never caught.
Like De Villiers, ARTHUR VICTOR KIMBER, taxicab owner of Pietermaritzburg, was shot dead by a fare. His body was discovered at the side of the Maritzburg-Durban road on 22nd September 1931. Connected with the mystery were two eloping lovers – Richard Louis Mallalieu (21), a former public schoolboy from England, where his father had been an M.P., and Gwendoline Mary Tolputt (23), adopted daughter of a doctor practising at Tarkastad.
The couple had reached Pietermaritzburg on an illicit honeymoon and were there when Kimber was shot and robbed. They were short of money and were seen in town at the time of the crime. They were arrested in Cape Town. In Mallalieu’s luggage was an Astra pistol. Two spent cartridge-cases which ballistics experts said had been fired from this pistol had been found at the scene of the crime. Mallalieu was tried at Pietermaritzburg on 8th March 1932. During the trial the defence questioned the identification of Kimber’s passengers on the fatal night and the similarity of the markings on the spent cartridge cases. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. Tolputt did not stand trial and she and Mallalieu were deported.
The murder of IRENE KANTHACK, a young Witwatersrand University student, near the Zoo Memorial in Johannesburg, shocked the public. But what was never fully explained was the attempt of a woman to cast suspicion on an innocent man, her former sweetheart. At 6:15 pm on 24th November 1927, Miss Kanthack was seen behind the zoo, returning from a walk. Soon afterwards her pet terrier ran into her home, whimpering strangely. Her father called the police and urgent messages were broadcast. Her body was found beneath a clump of leaves and branches.
Clues showed that she had been killed in a nearby bush after fighting fiercely for her life. The chief of the C.I.D. was certain that the murderer was a Bantu, as the body had been left under a tree and covered with branches – the way in which Bantu usually conceal game they hunt and kill.
Some time afterwards a woman told her friends that her sweetheart, ‘Billy’, had confessed to the murder of Irene Kanthack. ‘Billy’, a youth of 21, was arrested, although handwriting experts were convinced that the letters allegedly written by him were forgeries. The woman took poison in a fit of contrition, but recovered and was called to testify at a preparatory examination. Under cross-examination she broke down and the magistrate described her evidence as a fabrication. He discharged ‘Billy’.
Not guilty, but liable for damages
The sequel to one murder verdict remains unique in court records. A young stockbroker’s clerk was charged with shooting a pawnbroker in his shop in Long Street, Cape Town, on 2nd March 1938. The jury found him not guilty and he was acquitted.
Unlike Kerr, he was thus immune from further prosecution; but the victim’s widow sued him in the civil courts for £1 500 damages and a similar sum for her baby son, for depriving them of their bread-winner. On the same facts the judge, who had also presided at the criminal trial, and a second judge found that, on the balance of probabilities, the youth had fired the fatal shots and was, therefore, liable for damages. He disappeared for 20 years, but was eventually traced and compelled to pay. No apparent motive. The trial of Y was one of the causes’ celebres of the 1970′s. It was a case unique in several respects.
A young building tycoon murdered his wife without apparent motive, and he was saved from the gallows by a judge’s finding of extenuating circumstances. In 1958 Y was divorced from his first wife and married a girl of 18 on 26 th February 1963. He was then 34. At Easter, 1970, Mrs. Y and her two small children spent a week with friends at a Cape coastal resort and flew back to Cape Town on Sunday afternoon, 5 th April. Y met them at the airport. He and his wife had a meal alone in the library. About 10.45 p.m. the housekeeper-governess heard a number of dull thuds. Moments later Y ran into her bedroom and called her. The governess saw Mrs. Y’s body sprawled on the library floor. Her skull had been shattered and there were other fearsome wounds, all caused by two heavy library ornaments. Y’s trial lasted four weeks. Announcing a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder, the judge said that the punishment prescribed by law was hanging unless there was evidence of extenuating circumstances. But the law made it clear that the onus of proof of extenuating circumstances, rested, not on the State, but on the accused person. The defence called a psychiatrist to report on his examination of Y. All Y’s actions during the fatal assault, according to the psychiatrist, emanated from a person in a state of lowered responsibility. Agreeing that the death penalty was not appropriate, as he found the crime unpremeditated – this constituted an extenuating factor – the judge sentenced Y to 12 years’ imprisonment. An application for leave to appeal was rejected.
Murder for a reward?
The murder of Baron Dieterich Joachim Gunther von Schauroth, a farmer of Blinkoog, Karasburg, remains unique. Not only were tragedy and mystery etched against a background of illicit diamond deals and a vast fortune in insurance, but fiction has rarely matched the murderer’s story that Von Schauroth promised him a reward of R10 000 to carry out a plot to swindle the insurance companies.Von Schauroth (born in his father’s castle in South West Africa on 30th November 1924) and his brother inherited Blinkoog on the death of their father, a member of an aristocratic family. Dieterich’s share of Blinkoog, which was mortgaged for R20 000, was worth between
R50 000 and R60 000. But a prolonged drought turned a prosperous Karakul breeding farm into a desert. Von Schauroth decided to move to Cape Town and invest the R10 000 to R12 000 that he had saved. He rented an expensive flat for himself, his wife, formerly Miss Colleen Baron and Colleen von Schauroth and his baby son, and led a life of pleasure.
He opened a banking account with R4 000 and handed over R3 800, to be paid into the trust account of insurance brokers as premiums on a number of short-term policies. Von Schauroth was sold insurance and eventually had cover for R400 000. He was well known for his idiosyncrasy of carrying large sums of money on his person. Early in January 1961 he was introduced to Marthinus Rossouw, aged 24, an electronics fitter on the railways, who was temporarily stationed at Bitterfontein, near the State diamond-diggings, and was on the look-out for a buyer of illicit gems.
On one occasion, with Rossouw as a go-between, Von Schauroth bought a parcel of uncut stones from a man known as ‘The Boss’ for R200. Rossouw appeared dissatisfied with the R10 Von Schauroth gave him for an introduction to ‘The Boss’, and was also disappointed with the amount of a loan he obtained from him. Nevertheless, the two were frequently in each other’s company. On Friday night, 25th March 1961, Von Schauroth left his flat with R4 000 in notes. He met Rossouw and they drove to a hotel in Milnerton, near Cape Town.
The following morning Von Schauroth’s body was found beside the road to Malmesbury, about 25 km from Cape Town. He had two bullet wounds in his neck, both fatal. The diamonds he had bought from ‘The Boss’ lay scattered about, giving the impression of a quarrel or scuffle during an illicit diamond transaction.
Rossouw was arrested. He adhered to his story that he had shot Von Schauroth at his request ‘to relieve him of his grief and marital unhappiness’. In contradiction, evidence was produced that Von Schauroth had left his wife a large sum in insurance money and that the couple had been happy together. The jury returned a verdict of murder without extenuating circumstances. Rossouw was sentenced to death and hanged on 20 June 1962. It was subsequently announced that the estate had approached the insurance companies for a settlement and that all legal actions had been withdrawn on payment of R20 000 by one company and the estate’s costs.
Shooting of a judge
Mr. Justice Simon Meyer Kuper, of the Witwatersrand Division of the Supreme Court, was shot at his home in Lower Houghton, Johannesburg. About two months before the crime a young man arrived, uninvited and unexpectedly, at the judge’s home. The caller did not give his name. Mrs. Kuper told him to make his approach through an attorney or an advocate. Someone rang the next evening, and the judge also advised the caller to consult an attorney. On the night of 8 March 1963 Kuper was shot while sitting in front of an open window in his home. The motive for the crime remains obscure and the murderer is still at large.
Headless torso
The torso of a woman was found in a suitcase in the Boksburg Lake on the East Rand on 27th October 1964. There were many stab wounds in her chest. The legs were recovered from the Wemmer Pan, near Johannesburg, on 7th November and the head in the Zoo Lake on 17th December 1964.
The main problem was identification of the remains. Sketches of the head and features were made and published in newspapers throughout the country, but without result. Three young women, daughters of Mrs. Catherine Louise Burch, told the police that their mother, the fourth wife of Ronald William George Arthur Burch, had disappeared shortly before the torso had been found.
The artist’s sketch in the newspapers had aroused their suspicions, but they were unable to state with certainty that the victim was their mother. Burch, too, had vanished. Investigations continued for several years and it seemed as though the mystery would never be solved. Then in November 1968 chance played a part. A letter written by Mrs. Catherine Burch to her daughters four years previously was found and taken to the police. Investigation proved that the letter had been written by the dead woman. Soon afterwards Burch was traced to his mother’s home in a Johannesburg suburb. When detectives entered the house to arrest him, he locked himself in a room, attached live wires to his arms, and electrocuted himself.
The panga man
Phineas Tshitaundzi, known as the ‘panga man’, terrorised Pretoria couples for six years, from 1953 to 1959. In spite of frequent police warnings about the danger of parking in secluded places at night. White men and women were repeatedly surprised and attacked in their cars on the outskirts of the city. The men were robbed and slashed with a panga. Some of the women were outraged and severely beaten.
The ‘panga man’ inflicted bodily injuries indiscriminately. Before he was tracked down and arrested he had been responsible for a score of assaults and had stolen a considerable amount of money and many valuables. The ‘panga man’s immunity to arrest made him careless.
When his victims had no money he took their possessions. He kept some and sold others. Among these was a watch which a Bantu bought from him. This Bantu told others of his ‘bargain’ and eventually the police heard of it. They searched Tshitaundzi’s room at Vlakfontein and found a collection of articles taken from the ‘panga man’s’ victims. The panga was also found. Most of the articles were identified by the victims, and a number of them were also able to identify the man. After his arrest Tshitaundzi confessed. He was sentenced to death and hanged on 14th November 1960.
Source: Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa.