D. F. Malan | |
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 Portrait of Malan | |
| 4th Prime Minister of South Africa | |
| In office 4 June 1948 – 30 November 1954 | |
| Monarchs | |
| Governors-General | |
| Preceded by | Jan Smuts |
| Succeeded by | Johannes Strijdom |
| Minister of the Interior, Education and Public Health | |
| In office 30 June 1924 – 20 May 1933 | |
| Prime Minister | Barry Hertzog |
| Preceded by | SirPatrick Duncan |
| Succeeded by | Jan Hofmeyr |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Daniël François Malan (1874-05-22)22 May 1874 |
| Died | 7 February 1959(1959-02-07) (aged 84) |
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| Spouses | |
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| Alma mater | |
| Profession | Clergyman, politician |
Daniël François MalanPC (Afrikaans pronunciation:[ˈdɑːni.əlfranˈsʋɑːmɑːˈlan]; 22 May 1874 – 7 February 1959) was aSouth African politician who served as the fourthprime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. TheNational Party implemented the system ofapartheid, which enforcedracial segregation laws, during his tenure as prime minister.
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Political career
Early career Premiership Elections | ||
Daniël François Malan was born on 22 May 1874 inRiebeek-West in theCape Colony. His father, who bore the same name, was a wealthy farmer and clergyman. His mother was Ana Magdalena du Toit. He was the fifth of nine children, four of whom did not survive childhood.
The progenitor of the Malan name in the South African region was aFrench Huguenot refugee named Jacques Malan fromProvence (Mérindol), France, who arrived at the Cape before 1689.[1][page needed] The Malan name is one of a number of Afrikaans names of French origin which have retained their original spelling. Malan's older sister,Cinie, later became a missionary and linguist.[2]
Malan obtained a B.A. in Music and Science fromVictoria College, Stellenbosch, whereafter he entered the Stellenbosch seminary in order to train as aminister in theDutch Reformed Church. Along with his studies intheology, he obtained a M.A. in Philosophy from Victoria College, later to be theUniversity of Stellenbosch.[3] Malan left South Africa in 1900 to study towards aDoctorate in Divinity at theUniversity of Utrecht, which he obtained in 1905.
Malan returned to South Africa, where he was ordained as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church and served for six months as an assistant-minister inHeidelberg, Transvaal. He was an ardent fighter for the acceptance ofAfrikaans, which was an emerging language fighting againstDutch and English, and was a founding member of theAfrikaanse Taal- en Kultuurvereniging (ATKV, 'The Afrikaans Language and Cultural Society'), which was established in 1930. He was stationed inMontagu from 1906 to 1912 and thereafter inGraaff-Reinet until 1915. He also undertook a journey on behalf of the Dutch Reformed Church, visiting religious Afrikaners living in theBelgian Congo,Northern Rhodesia, andSouthern Rhodesia.[4]
Malan's involvement inNational Party politics began shortly after the NP's formation in 1914. In those years, political parties had affiliated newspapers that served as their mouthpiece. However, Nationalist-minded Afrikaners in the Cape had no such outlet and therefore, in 1915, decided to foundDe Burger, which later became known asDie Burger. They persuaded Malan to become the editor of the new newspaper and he used it as a springboard for entry into parliament.[5] As he was worried about the Afrikaners' political position in the aftermath of the1914 Rebellion, he relinquished his position as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church to accept the position. The Cape branch of the National Party was founded in 1915 and Malan was elected as its provincial leader. In 1918, he was elected toParliament for the first time as MP for the seat ofCalvinia in theHouse of Assembly. He held that seat until 1938 when he became the MP forPiketberg.
When the National Party came to power for the first time in 1924 under Prime MinisterJ. B. M. Hertzog, Malan was given the post of Minister of the Interior, Education and Public Health, which he held until 1933. In 1925, he was at the forefront of a campaign to replace Dutch with Afrikaans in the constitution and provide South Africa witha new national flag.
After the 1933 election, theUnited Party was formed out of the fusion of Hertzog's National Party and the rivalSouth African Party ofJan Smuts. Malan strongly opposed this merger and, in 1934, he and 19 other MPs defected to form thePurified National Party, which he led for the next 14 years as the opposition.
Malan opposed South African participation inWorld War II. South Africa's participation in the conflict was unpopular among theAfrikaner population, and in 1939 that led to a split in the governingUnited Party. The defectors united with the National Party, dramatically strengthening Malan's political position, and he consequently defeated Smuts and the United Party in the1948 general election.
During Malan's tenure as prime minister, South Africans lost the right of appeal from the Appellate Division of theSupreme Court of South Africa to theJudicial Committee of the Privy Council in London under the terms of thePrivy Council Appeals Act, 1950.
The foundations of apartheid were firmly laid during Malan's six-and-a-half years as prime minister. On 24 February 1953, Malan was granted dictatorial powers to oppose black and Indian anti-apartheid movements.[6] Malan resigned in 1954 at the age of 80 with the hopes ofNicolaas Havenga being appointed as the prime minister. However, Havenga was defeated byJ. G. Strijdom.[7]
Malan died on 7 February 1959 at Môrewag, his home inStellenbosch, aged 84.[8] His book,Afrikaner Volkseenheid en my ervaringe op die pad daarheen ("Afrikaner nationalism and my experiences on the road to it"), was published in the same year byNasionale Boekhandel. A collection of his writings and documents is housed in the Document Centre at the University of Stellenbosch's J.S. Gericke Library. He is positioned 81st on theSABC3's Great South Africans list.
Media related toDaniel François Malan at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toD. F. Malan at Wikiquote
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| Preceded by | Prime Minister of South Africa 1948–1954 | Succeeded by |
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| Republic of South Africa (1961–1984) (under Apartheid) | ||
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