Pact
Government
Role Players during the Pact Government: The National Party
| GRADE LEVEL | THEME | TOPIC | DURATION |
| 12 | SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY | 1924 -1948 POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL | 6 x LESSONS |
Pact
Government |
Barry Hertzog formed the National Party (NP) in 1914 in Bloemfontein, after his split with the South African Party (SAP).
Picture A: General Hertzog. Hertzog had a serious difference of opinion with the prime minister, Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, his fellow leaders in the SAP. He was fiercely and publicly nationalistic, which offended English-speaking South Africans. Hertzog's views on Afrikaans and English identity in South Africa were very different from those of Botha, who favoured the promotion of national unity. Hertzog insisted in putting South Africa's interests above those of Britain and saw English-speaking and Afrikaans-speaking South Africans developing in two separate, parallel cultural streams. Some enthusiastic supporters of the British Empire in South Africa described him as anti-British and called for his removal from the government. Some even resigned rather than work with him, and he himself refused to resign from parliament. In December 1912 Botha formed a new cabinet and did not include Hertzog, a move that started the split within the SAP. Initially the NP had most of its support in the Orange Free State and the Cape. Afrikaners saw Hertzog as their representative and many important political and cultural leaders supported him. At a congress in May 1913 his Orange Free State backers in the SAP insisted on his inclusion in the cabinet, while the Transvaal members were behind Botha's decision to keep him out. Then, at the national SAP Congress in November 1913, Botha won enough support to keep Hertzog out of cabinet. This was the last straw for Hertzog and he left the SAP to form the National Party (NP). In January 1914 Hertzog and his supporters met in Bloemfontein and laid down the principles of a new party to be called the National Party (NP). Its main aim was to direct the country along Christian lines towards an independent South Africa. Political freedom from Britain was essential to the NP, but they were prepared to maintain the current relationship with the Empire. They also insisted on equality of English and Dutch, the two official languages. Because Hertzog's policies were so orientated towards Afrikaner nationalism, most of his supporters were Afrikaans-speakers. After the split the SAP support base was mainly white English-speaking South Africans. World War I, from1914 to 1918 was a difficult period for the SAP government. Not only did it have to deal with wartime conditions and the Afrikaner rebellion of 1914. Once the war was over there was also labour unrest of the Rand Rebellion in 1922. All this strengthened the NP and weakened the SAP. Added to this many of the SAP's supporters joined the NP when Louis Botha died in 1919, because Smuts was a less popular leader. It became clear that in the 1920 elections the SAP would need the NP's cooperation to form a combined cabinet to maintain political stability. But discussions to this end failed. The main point of disagreement was once again South Africa's ties with Britain. Smuts was happy with the situation as it was and wanted to retain the British connection while Hertzog wanted independence. Smuts was clever man with a brilliant academic record and he had risen to the status of an international figure during World War I. He was one of the world leaders who helped to form the League of Nations (the fore-runner of the UNO) after the war.
Picture B: Workers protesting during the Rand Rebellion. The Rand Rebellion encouraged cooperation between the National Party and the Labour Party. Both parties wanted to protect white labour and decided to make a pact in April 1923 that would ensure that they would not oppose each other in the elections by supporting each other's candidates in certain areas. This agreement led to the defeat of the SAP in the 1924 general elections. The Pact administration and its achievements will be discussed in more detail in another theme in this lesson, but you should note here that Hertzog and his new cabinet passed laws to make Afrikaans an official language and also gave the country a new flag. In line with NP thinking the Pact also took positive steps to clarify South Africa's position in relation to Britain. The Balfour Declaration, drawn up at the Imperial Conference in 1926 became a law in 1931 in terms of the Statue of Westminster. The Pact Government made great progress in industrial legislation and economy. Its protection of white workers and strict control over industry helped the mines, factories and industries to grow enormously. Click here to read more about the administration of the Pact Government. In the 1929 general elections the Pact won again, but the Great Depression, from 1930 to 1933, made the government's rule difficult. In 1931, with the depression getting worse, Britain left the gold standard. Tielman Roos, another prominent NP leader, tried to persuade Hertzog to take South Africa off the gold standard and eventually Hertzog agreed. The economic situation improved almost immediately. With the passing of time the differences in policy between the NP and SAP became less obvious and in 1933 the two parties decided to merge to form a coalition government. The new combined party was formed in 1934 and became known as the United Party (UP). The UP then took over the government with Hertzog as prime minister and Smuts as his deputy. Click here to read more about the United Party rule from 1933 to 1948. When the United Party was formed in 1933 there were some of the die-hard NP republicans from the Cape under D.F. Malan who were not in favour of joining the SAP. They remained independent and then decided to form the new opposition, which was called the Purified National Party. In fact it was just a splinter group that kept traditional NP principles alive. Malan and his followers were the core group of politicians in the NP when it took control of the government in the 1948 elections. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 caused an internal split in the ranks of the ruling United Party. Hertzog wanted to remain neutral in the war and eventually resigned as prime minister and left the UP. Smuts took over as prime minister and Hertzog returned to the NP ranks by joining Malan's “purified” group. The nationalists then changed the NP's name to the Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP). ‘Herenigde' means ‘re-united'. Hertzog became the HNP leader, with Malan as his deputy. The HNP was not effective as an opposition because it had constant internal strife during the war. Click here to read more about the tension among white political parties in the period 1933 to 1948. By November 1940 the situation had worsened to the point where Hertzog and his supporters walked out of a HNP congress. Hertzog also left his position in parliament. Meanwhile, another splinter party, the Afrikaner Party (AP) was formed. The HNP and AP cooperated in the crucial 1948 elections and were able to win enough seats to defeat the UP and take over the government. In 1951 the two parties merged and adopted the original name, the National Party (NP). From 1948 onwards the NP went from strength to strength and remained in control of the government until the first democratic election in 1994 and the coming to power of the African National Congress (ANC). Learning Outcome: Synthesise information about the past and develop, sustain and defend an independent line of historical argument. Communicate and present information reliably and accurately in writing. Informed understanding of key concepts as ways of analysing the past. Ability to work independently, formulating enquiry questions and gathering, analysing and interpreting relevant evidence to answer questions.
|
Activity
4