Dr. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was Prime Minister of South Africa until 1966.
Renowned for his intellectual leadership of a nation which he skillfully steered,
through the transition from a dominion of the British Empire to a sovereign Republic in May 1961.
Dr. Verwoerd is widely remembered for the pursuit of domestic policies that envisioned the gradual establishment of free and independent nation states in line with principles adopted by European powers at the time.
South Africa’s social construct according to race and culture was entrenched during the years of British imperial rule.
With increasing autonomy in domestic affairs South Africans sought to guarantee their existence on the African continent by the progressive federation of the territory in accordance with economic and political stability through the policy of separate development.
Apartheid is the Afrikaans word for a policy of separate development which sought to guarantee the survival of White Africans, thereby diminishing the threat to their right for self determination whilst concurrently granting those same rights to other Africans within their respective nations.
Under the premiership of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd the South African state invested large sums pursuing development policies in the Bantu states. Industry within the homelands was encouraged through tax incentives and labour benefits, thus establishing a symbiotic relationship between the free market and the rapidly developing economies of each nation state.
Investment in education, commerce, industry and agriculture provided for the development of facilities from primary to tertiary education servicing communities in their native language. Employment in the autonomous nations was secured through the establishment of development corporations which funded communal estates and various enterprises that guaranteed the prosperity of its citizens. South Africa financed the construction of infrastructure in all the designated homelands, hospitals, housing, parliaments, stadiums. Established and trained their individual military and security forces in the interests of founding viable independent nation states.
The following maps of South Africa and South West Africa explicate the average yearly rainfall, therefore the fertility of the territory in relation to the location of the Bantu States. The homelands were granted independence according to their historical pattern of migration since the early 1700’s when the Bantu Nations entered South Africa along the eastern coast.
