Word: strijdom
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1953-1953
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Nationalist Party in Cape Province. The news-a portent that the paunchy old Boer may soon retire as Prime Minister-brought to the surface a longtime struggle for the succession. There are two chief candidates: Transvaal Boss Johannes Gerhardus Strydom (who recently changed the spelling of his name to Strijdom because it is "more Boerlike"), and pipe-puffing Theophilus Dönges, Minister of the Interior. Strijdom (pronounced Stray-dom) is a fanatic apostle of racial segregation, who represents the extreme anti-British, anti-Negro and anti-Jewish wing of the party. He put up a hand-picked candidate...
...vote that mattered most belonged to Daniel Malan, D.D., an elder of the Reformed Church himself. Malan voted for Dönges, the more moderate candidate, largely because his Finance Minister warned: "South Africa needs [foreign] capital, and will not get it if Strijdom becomes Prime Minister . . ." With Malan's backing, Dönges won. To soften the blow to the Boer fanatics in the party, Malan delivered a two-hour lecture full of surefire sniping at the British crown. "The South African Parliament," he thundered, "can abolish the monarchy with one vote. If our appeal court judges declared...