A few months preceding Dr. Verwoerd’s assassination, the editor of the British periodical, “Statist”, Paul Bareau, wrote...
“At the rate at which South Africa is now expanding the term „miracle” is likely to be appropriate to its development over the next few years”.
Eleven days before the assassination of Prime Minister Verwoerd, “Time Magazine” publishes the following...
“South Africa is in the midst of a massive boom. Attracted by cheap labour, a gold backed currency and high profits, investors from all over the world have ploughed money into the country, and the new industries that they have started have sent production, consumption – and the demand for labour – soaring. Such are the proportions of prosperity…”
Numerous quotes of this nature bear witness to the success of Dr. Verwoerd’s policies.
South Africa had become an emerging economic and military power a stabilizing force amongst an increasingly unstable continent. South Africa was therefore a threat to Anglo American and Communist interests seeking to exploit the valuable resources of a weakened post colonial Africa.
Hendrik Verwoerd commissioned an investigation into power monopolies, a report known as the Hoek report in 1965.
Dr. Verwoerd delegated the responsibility to professor Pieter Hoek to determine the economic stranglehold that economic monopolies such as Anglo American run by the Oppenheimer mining magnate, Rembrandt of Anton Rupert dealing in the alcohol and tobacco industry, amongst other economic powers.
On the 16th of April, 1960 Dr. Verwoerd was shot and injured by David Pratt during the opening ceremony of the Rand Easter Show at Milner Park in Johannesburg. Pratt was declared insane and sent to a psychiatric institution in Bloemfontein, committing suicide a few months later.
Six years later, September 6, 1966 Dimitry Tsafendas stabbed Dr. Verwoerd to death in the House of Assembly, Tsafendas escaped the death penalty on the grounds of insanity.
The Attorney General had a strong suspicion that the murder was politically motivated and that Tsafendas was a “hired killer”. Tsafendas was incarcerated indefinitely.
On hearing of Dr. Verwoerd’s assassination, the then Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Douglas Smith said..
"To those who knew him personally, and I count myself as one of those who had this privilege.
His deep sincerity in everything he undertook,
his gentleness and his kindness towards all people.
His championing of civilized and Christian ideals, and his wise counsels in times of peace and adversity will be greatly missed."
Dr. Verwoerd’s funeral took place on September 10, 1966.
Hendrik Verwoerd led South Africa through her most difficult stage of development from a dependent British Dominion to a respected and powerful force in the global arena. Dr. Verwoerd became the towering statesman of the 20th Century and he is equal, if not superior to any of his contemporaries in the Western World. A statesman that may be evaluated on the grounds of his achievements in the face of International enmity from the Anglo-American, Communist and Afro-Asian block.
He secured South Africa’s future against the total onslaught, whilst elevating the nation to a stupendous position of stability and prosperity seldom if ever equaled in history under the circumstances.
A quote from Jan Botha, an outspoken critic of Dr. Verwoerd...in his book “Verwoerd is dead” he refers to...
”the threats from the United Nations and the arms boycott by the United States and Britain”...
...”By the time he died, Dr. Verwoerd had built his own monument which was there for all to see: the Republic of South Africa. The White people had been forged together in unity, the country was militarily strong and resilient, the police and security forces were effectively dealing with all attempts at subversion and infiltration, the country’s economy was dynamic, expanding and had become largely self-sufficient.”
