Word: strydom
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...down from his No. 1 party job: leader of the 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...
Slaves at the Bottom. Strong-willed Daniel Malan, returned to power for another five years, is now 78. His heir apparent is even more fanatic: Johannes Gerhardus Strydom, 59, the Nationalist Minister of Lands. The so-called Messiah of Waterberg is hailed by his supporters as "First President of the coming South African Republic." His program seems to call for a stratified New Boer Jerusalem not very different from Plato's Republic: at the bottom, black slaves to hew wood and fetch water; in the middle, alien (i.e., British) traders to deal with petty commerce...
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...
...ally and possible rival, Lawyer Swart, once tr'ed-and failed-to make his fortune in Hollywood (he played a bit part as a giant). A strident anti-Semite ("No Jewish votes are wanted"), he shares Strydom's Anglophobia, but reserves his bitterest contempt for the native four-fifths of South Africa's population. Swart once dramatized his plans to get tough with the Negroes by appearing in Parliament with a cat-o'-nine-tails tucked under...
Johannesburg gave Strydom his answer. Despite the chill winter weather, 50,000 shouting citizens, white and black, crowded round the city hall to cheer for Smuts. The old man stood slim, erect and bareheaded on a dais shaped like a birthday cake, and told South Africans: "Cast fear out of your hearts and put an end to bickering and quarreling. Concentrate on the great things that are on the doorstep...