Word: malan
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South Africa waited uneasily last week for the trouble that seemed to be heading its way. Thwarted by the supreme court in his attempt to disfranchise 50,000 Cape colored voters (TIME, March 31), Prime Minister Malan declared that the court is no more than "a few judges, appointed and paid by the government." He added: "The struggle for [Boer] freedom has been reopened ... No compromise is possible...
...Malan's outburst confirmed what many South Africans had long feared: blocked by law, the Nationalists might use force. At 78-year-old Premier Malan's side last week were two hotheads. They were Johannes Gerhardus Strydom, 58, Minister of Lands, and Charles Robberts Swart, 58, Minister of Justice. Strydom, onetime Transvaal ostrich farmer, has one consuming ambition: to become the first president of an Afrikaner republic wh:ch is outside the British Commonwealth. "Britain," he says, "stands for equal rights for everyone, irrespective of color or smell." A rabid racialist, he runs thq National Party machine...
...Boss? Egged on by such fanatic lieutenants, aging Pastor Malan sought to silence the opposition. In Parliament last week, Jacobus Gideon Nel Strauss, 51, heir to the late great Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts as leader of the United Party, tried to attack government policy. Nationalist backbenchers shouted him down. Unable to make himself heard, Strauss appealed to the Speaker of the House, an ardent Malanite. The Speaker's only comment: "Resume your seat. I think you have said enough." Slumped on the front bench opposite, Prime Minister Malan chuckled in derision...
Next day in the Senate, white-haired Senator George Heaton Nicholls, one of the Union's founding fathers, bluntly said: "Malan threatens us with revolution by defying the rule of law. This is Naziism . . ." Nicholls' protest got nowhere. "The only question," replied a Nationalist opponent, "is who is ... the boss." By 22 votes to 14, the Senate made it plain that Malan...
Faced with a split in his own party, Malan risked revolution and interracial war if he persisted in defying the court. "Your immoral acts," said Opposition Leader Strauss, "are now also proved illegal. With every month that passes while South Africa is governed by you, the prospects become more fearful. Resign. Resign. Resign...