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Trump and Verwoerd - What's the Connection?

As the US Presidential election draws to a close, I am reminded to post this belated piece on a very tenuous connection I discovered between President Donald Trump and Dr Hendrik F Verwoerd, the assassinated Prime Minister of SA.

Before you rush to make the glib assumption that the connection between Trump and Verwoerd can only be that "they are both racists", please bear in mind that unlike Trump, no Black person ever voted for Verwoerd, the architect of Apartheid. In pre-democratic South Africa, Black adults did not have the vote and could not have voted for Apartheid even if that is what they wanted to do. Trump, however, has the support of millions of Black Americans, something Verwoerd never enjoyed. IMO, racism is not what connects them.

In the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on Trump in the USA, I came across some SWA stamps. These were notable for displaying what was called the "bullet hole variety" in the forehead of Verwoerd. Indeed, the SACC (South African Colour Catalogue 2008/9) describes this variety as the "big spot on forehead variety". It is pretty obvious why some call it the " bullet hole variety. It is something many people on the Liberal Left wanted to see happen to Verwoerd ..... and Trump. But that is not what connects them here.

This 15c stamp was part of a set of three SWA stamps issued on the 6th January 1967 in Commemmoration of the recently assassinated Dr Hendrik Verwoerd who was stabbed to death on 6th September 1966 in the House of Parliament in Cape Town. The 15c stamp is the top value in the SWA Verwoerd Commemoration issue.  To get Verwoerd's life and death in a little perspective, here is some background as to why South Africa issued stamps commemorating him in South West Africa, today the independent country of Namibia.

FDC SWA 1967 Verwoerd Commemoration

South African forces invaded German SWA in WW1 and took control of it. SA wanted SWA as its 5th province but the League of Nations  would only grant it a Class C Mandate to rule the territory. After WW2 the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations. In 1948 the Nationalists came to power in SA promising to introduce the racially discriminatory policy of Apartheid of which Verwoerd was the driving philosopher. After Apartheid was also implemented in SWA there was an  international outcry. Ethiopia and Liberia failed on a technicality to have SA's SWA mandate revoked at the International Court of Justice in 1966. In terms of the mandate they were not the proper parties to bring the case to court. This was something only the inhabitants of SWA could do. South Africa's security police made sure they did not! At this time the National Party enjoyed strong support from the Afrikaner and ethnic German population of SWA. Between 1950 and 1977, all of SWA's parliamentary seats were held by the National Party. Most SWA Whites, not all, were comfortable with Apartheid's status quo and supported the control it offered them at a time when the native people were demanding a political voice, equal rights and the franchise.

Unlike Donald Trump who is supported politically by Black and White Americans, Verwoerd was a racist. His policy of Apartheid set out to catergorise and divide people into 'population groups' based on race. This made him the target of two assassination attempts. The first attempt was made by David Beresford Pratt, a 52-year old British-South African businessman, Natal farmer and liberal anti-Apartheid activist who had a documented history of mental health issues that required psychiatric treatment. Despite him being diagnosed as paranoid and depressive, Pratt's friends stated that he was perfectly sane, a liberal man angered by Black poverty, racial injustice and segregation. Pratt's views turned to outrage following the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960 in which 69 Black protesters were shot by police in SA. It is likely that the ensuing international disgust and condemnation influenced his actions.

Pratt attempted to assassinate Verwoerd on 9th April 1960 when he was opening the Union Exposition in Milner Park, Johannesburg in his capacity as Prime Minister. Pratt shot Verwoerd with a handgun at very close range, once in the cheek and in the ear. So, there you have it .... my tenuous connection between Trump and Verwoerd. Both men were shot in the ear in the first assassination attempt on their lives.

Unlike Trump whose ear wound was not serious, Verwoerd's jaw was shattered by the other shot. Like Trump whose security was highly questionable, Verwoerd's was similarly inept. According to Time magazine, Verwoerd’s personal bodyguard, Major Carl Richter, fainted at the scene. Verwoerd was rushed to a nearby Johannesburg hospital where he recovered. He would be assassinated five years later on 6th September 1966 when he was repeatedly stabbed to death in Cape Town's House of Assembly by Dimitri Tsafendas, a mentally ill parliamentary messenger. South Africa's small Greek community were vilified and lived in fear of repercussions for months.

The US Democrats have accused Trump of being a fascist, an authoritarian and Hitler reincarnate. There is nothing in Trump's record in office as President of the USA to supports these charges. Verwoerd, on the other hand, cannot be extracted from the mire of the history that he made for himself and SA. He was a gifted and successful man in all the areas that he applied his intellect to - professor of applied psychology, newspaper editor, politician - but beneath it all he was a socially conservative authoritarian Afrikaner nationalist, a member of the secretive Afrikaner Broederbond (Brotherhood), a secret White Calvinist organisation dedicated to advancing Afrikaner interests.

At the start of WW2 Dr Verwoerd protested against South Africa's declaration of war on Germany and later lost a libel case in which he sued The Star newpaper who had accused him of being a Nazi propagandist. The verdict of the judge was that Verwoerd was a Nazi propagandist who triumphantly headlined every Nazi victory and constantly attacked "British Jewish liberalism". Verwoerd argued that he was not a racist. No doubt, he believed that he did not dislike Black people with whom he got on well with, like his servants, the garden 'boy' and the postman. The reality was that he excluded them from his society. Apartheid, something later renamed as 'separate development', allowed him to sweep Black South Africans out of White society and into dustbins located at the far edge of town.

Today, Verwoerd is remembered for one thing only - being the Architect of the failed policy of Apartheid. He described it as a policy of "good-neighbourliness", ignoring the massive distress and upheaval caused by the Group Areas Act's cruel social engineering and racial rezoning invariably at the expense of 'Non-Whites'. There are some who argue  he should be rehabilitated, who say that he only wanted the best for all of SA's people. I am not one of those. He was a plague on my country and my youth! His legacy is the biggest reason I left home.

1]. Top: 1967 6 January Commemoration of Dr Verwoerd. 15c 'Bullet in the Head' flaw.
2]. First Day Cover  1967 6 January full set.
3]. Time Magazine, 'The Delusion of Apartheid'. Prime Minister Herndrik Verwoerd.
4]. Calendar. Daily Task for Nationalists.

Interesting take and comparison. In the case of Trump or whoever is elected, the potential for world-wide damage is much worse, as US politics is captured by interest groups, a policy of war mongering and forever wars. 

The hope of the Western world remains the USA.  I agree with you about "US politics is captured by interest groups, a policy of war mongering and forever wars". However, it is Biden and Harris who have bought America and the world to this state with their politics of the last 4 years. Biden lifted Trump's sanctions on Tehran and now we have war in the Middle East funded by Iran, Biden cut and ran in a humiliating way from Afghanistan, reducing fear of America among its enemies. He then pumped billions in weapons into the Ukraine to bring us to the brink of war with the Russian invaders. All the while Biden allowed Big Pharma, Big Agro, Big Bucks and Big Tech to have undue 'deep state' influence in America to the disadvantage of the American people who are poorer and sicker today than ever. Harris has no policies but more of the same woke agenda wrapped up in a happy-clappy feelgood endorsement from wealthy celebrities as comfortably empty-headed as she is. As far as I know, she has yet to make a policy speech about what she would do diferently.

IMO Trump, Musk and Kennedy (previously all Democrats!) are disruptors who if given the chance will attempt to redirect America away from its status quo based around the military industrial complex , forever wars and an expanding deep state with a puppet as President.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Trump wants peace and prosperity. Musk wants to build things, explore space,  cut government over-reach and promote free speech. Kennedy wants to make Americans healthy again.  These are all good reason to vote for these nouveau Republicans. The people I speak to who dislike / hate Trump do so on the basis that they think he is an awful human being. It has nothing to do with political policy. When you talk to them its like switching on the BBC or reading the MSM.

Its too early to call but it looks like Trump is going to get the chance to attempt to make America great again.  Ironically, assuming he wins, he will have done so with the votes of Black and Latino men and also a lot of women. So much for the accusations of racism and sexism against him!

President Trump has won it. America's "deplorables" are now the moral majority. Good luck to him. I hope he ends wars and brings US troops home, that he makes America stronger, healthier, more prosperous and more confident.