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Jaap Marais | |
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_Marais.jpg) | |
| Leader of the Herstigte Nasionale Party | |
| In office 1977 – 8 August 2000 | |
| Preceded by | Albert Hertzog |
| Succeeded by | Willie Marais |
| Constituency | Innesdal Pretoria |
| Member of Parliament ofSouth Africa | |
| In office 1958–1969 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jacob Albertus Marais (1922-11-02)2 November 1922 |
| Died | 8 August 2000(2000-08-08) (aged 77) |
| Political party | National Party until 1969, Herstigte Nasionale Party 1969-2000 |
| Spouse | Maria Dorothea (Marie) (née Rautenbach) |
| Children | Marjorié Louise Stoffberg Karina Maria Slabbert Jacob Albertus (Japie) |
| Residence(s) | Pretoria,Transvaal,South Africa |
| Alma mater | Hoër Handelskool Potchefstroom |
| Profession | Politician |
Jacob Albertus Marais (2 November 1922 – 8 August 2000) was anAfrikanernationalist thinker, author,politician, Member of Parliament, and leader of theHerstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) from 1977 until his death in 2000.
Marais's father, Jaap Sr., and paternal grandfather, Sarel Jacobus Stefanus, were in active service on the Western front with theBothaville commando during theSecond Boer War. Both were madeprisoners of war afterBoergeneralPiet Cronjé's surrender at theBattle of Paardeberg. His father was sent to Broadbottom Camp atSt. Helena, while his grandfather was held atGreen Point and later paroled due to illness. He died a month after the end of the war. Marais's mother, together with her family, was interned at theKlerksdorpconcentration camp. His paternal grandmother was the leader of a group ofBoer women who travelled through the westernTransvaal and westernFree State for 18 months with their young children to avoid capture by British forces
Jaap Marais was one of nine children: six sons, and two daughters, of whom one brother died in infancy. Marais grew up on the Maraisdeel farm in the district ofVryburg. It originally formed part of a larger farm, Donkerpoort, which belonged to his grandfather. He attended a local school with his younger brother Jan. Marais matriculated in 1940 atVryburg Hoërskool. With tensions rising betweenAfrikaner nationalism andBritish nationalism during theSecond World War, Marais and a number of his classmates organized a "strike" on 10 October 1940, on account of it being the birthday of former president and bastion ofBoer nationalism,Paul Kruger.
After school, Marais enrolled at the Hoër Handelskool inPotchefstroom, where he received a National Diploma in 1942.
Marais was a member of theOssewabrandwag.[1]
He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the rulingNational Party in 1958 and served until 1969.
The Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) was formed in 1969 by Marais,Albert Hertzog (son of former Prime Minister GeneralJBM Hertzog), a cabinet minister, and two other MPs (Louis Stofberg and Willie Marais). The founding of the party occurred three years after the assassination ofHendrik Verwoerd whenBJ Vorster authorised the presence ofMāori players and spectators during the tour of theNew Zealand rugby union team inSouth Africa in 1970. Marais considered this measure as a concession under pressure that would result in liberalization and the dismantlement ofapartheid. Jaap Marais was expelled from theBroederbond shortly after the formation of the HNP was formed, alongside other HNP members or sympathisers.
The HNP found it difficult to make headway against the entrenched and relatively conservative ruling National Party in the 1970s. It succeeded in winning 14% of the vote in the white parliamentaryelections of 1981. However, it did not gain any seats due to the electoral system, which was based on aWestminster system ofelectoral districts rather than aproportional system. Its electoral growth played a role in encouraging theConservative Party to split from the National Party in 1982 underAndries Treurnicht.
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Under the leadership of Marais, the HNP challenged the policy of the National Party to negotiate with theAfrican National Congress and theSouth African Communist Party. He proposed a Volksfront: a coalition of right-wing organisations with the objective of stopping PresidentFW De Klerk from handing over the reins of government to the African National Congress. In 1992, aVolksfront was created from the ranks of the Conservative Party and led byConstand Viljoen after 1993.
In July 1993, in an open letter, Marais demanded a whites-only election from PresidentDe Klerk. In the same letter, Marais claimed that Afrikaners did not give De Klerk a mandate in theMarch 1992 referendum. Marais wrote to De Klerk that "hundreds of thousands of Afrikaners regardedDe Klerk's actions astreason. Marais claimed that De Klerk would lose "every by-election in the run-up to a general election," in whichDe Klerk and theNational Party "would be smashed". In September 1993 Marais repeated his request in another open letter. This time Marais accused De Klerk and his cronies of being "retarded (slow)communists", frequently conceding to theANC/SACP alliance.
After South Africa’sfirst non-racial democratic elections on 27 April 1994, Marais’sHNP maintained a policy of non-participation in the formal political and electoral system. Marais propagated the rhyming mottoKies Reg: Bly Weg!, which translates as "Decide/Vote Correct: Stay Away!"
Solidariteit'sFlip Buys, then at theMine Workers' Union, accused Marais of slander and defamation in an email addressed toOom Jaap niksdoen ("Uncle Jaap Do-nothing"). He accused Marais of defamation againstBruwer,Hartzenberg andViljoen, who Buys regarded as "men who sacrifice everything for their People". Buys further expressed his wish that Marais's "role in the dismantling of our People" be "laid bare in court". Marais replied: "Your letter is an interesting experience. I have never before dealt with a case where a writer's level of ignorance is exceeded so clearly by the degree of his rudeness."[2]
Today, the party still does not recognise the right of the African National Congress government to rule over Afrikaners in South Africa. The party also has not relinquished its claim to the previously white-dominated part of South Africa. It continues to encourage its supporters not to vote, as part of its policy of resistance.
Jaap Marais claimed that it was the British and not the National Party of 1948 who had invented apartheid. Marais also demanded an apology from then UK Prime MinisterTony Blair for Britain's conduct during theAnglo Boer War of 1899–1902, in particular its use ofconcentration camps in which 27,000 Boer civilians perished (24,000 children and 3,000 women).
Marais became engaged to Marie Rautenbach in 1957, and the two were married on 6 January 1959 inPatensie. They had two daughters, Marjorié and Karina, and a son, Japie.
Marais had an affinity for the work ofAfrikaans poetsN.P. van Wyk Louw andD.J. Opperman, as well as those of theDutch andFlemish poetsMarnix Gijsen,Henriette Roland Holst,Hendrik Marsman, andMartinus Nijhoff. His favouriteEnglish poetry was that ofRoy Campbell,T. S. Eliot, andJohn Keats, the latter of whom he described as "evergreen". During the 1950s, Marais translatedWilliam Shakespeare'sJulius Caesar intoAfrikaans.
Marais was an avid breeder ofbudgerigars.
Marais was an influential thinker in right-wing Afrikaner nationalist circles from the 1970s to the 1990s. His influences includedHans Strijdom andHendrik Verwoerd. He wrote a political biography of Hendrik Verwoerd as well as many political articles and booklets. In his writings and speeches, Marais often referred toRichard Weaver,C.J. Langenhoven,Tobie Muller,James Burnham,Alexis de Tocqueville,Edmund Burke,G.K. Chesterton,Alain de Benoist,Oswald Spengler,Arnold J. Toynbee,Ludwig von Mises,F.A. von Hayek andOrtega y Gasset.
Marais considered identity, continuity, and freedom as the three key themes of Afrikaner nationalism. He emphasized that identity rested on each group's preference for its own. Such a group preference implied a related right among members of the group to differentiate and discriminate to exercise a group's preference. According to Marais, among each group of people there was a center of authority that determined who was included and excluded. In the case of Afrikaners, their centers of authority ensured that a racial preference for whites, the Afrikaans language, a distinctive Western culture, traditions and history had formed the Afrikaner identity in southern Africa.
According to Marais, continuity depended on each generation maintaining what had been built up by previous generations and transferring it to the next generation. He emphasized Afrikaners' freedom struggle against foreign domination by British imperialism in theAnglo Boer War, but also against American and Soviet forces during theCold War as well as the various black ethnic peoples in South Africa. In his view, this freedom was linked to the fatherland of Afrikaners, which he defined as the areas of South Africa dominated by whites.
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