Andries Treurnicht

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Andries Petrus Treurnicht (1921-1993) was the founder and the leader of the Conservative Party in South Africa.

He was born in Piketberg (Cape Province) and began his working life as a journalist, being editor of Die Kerkbode and Hoofstad. He was a keen sportsman, excelling on the rugby field, playing provincial rugby against the All Blacks in 1949. After obtaining his MA in Theology at the University of Stellenbosch, he completed a Doctorate in Political Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. He subsequently entered the Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk), serving various congregations as minister for 14 years. He was elected Deputy Chairman of the Cape Synod and later of the General Synod. He married Engela Dreyer on January 18, 1949.

[edit] National Party career

In 1971, he became the National Party MP for Waterberg. Newly appointed as Deputy Minister of Education in 1976, his instruction to implement the policy that black students should be taught in Afrikaans triggered the Soweto Riots. In 1978, he was chosen, over the heads of 12 ministers, as Leader of the National Party in the Transvaal, and, in 1979, he became Minister of State for Administration and of Statistics.

[edit] Conservative Party career

On March 20, 1982, he and 17 other MPs quit the National Party to form the Conservative Party to oppose P.W. Botha and the National Party's limited reforms to apartheid. The CP's English language programme booklets from 1987-89 stated that the party was established "to continue the policy of self-determination after the [NP] government had exchanged self-determination" (something the CP described as an "infallible policy"), for power-sharing.^[1][2]

In 1987, the Conservative Party became the official opposition in the South African House of Assembly, winning 550,000 votes, displacing the liberal Progressive Federal Party. Donald Simpson, writing in the South African newspaper, The Star, went as far as to predict that the National Party would lose the next election and that the Conservative Party would become the new government of South Africa.^[3]

In June 1989, accompanied by Clive Derby-Lewis, Carl Werth, and several other Conservative Party officials, Treurnicht made an official visit to London and some other European capitals. The far-right Western Goals Institute organized his London visit, and the Conservative Monday Club held a dinner in his honour, at which at least one Conservative Party MP, Tim Janman, was present.^[4]

Already nicknamed "Doctor No", in 1992, he led the opposition campaign during the referendum called by F.W. de Klerk to gain white approval for negotiations to end apartheid. This campaign marked the peak of Conservative support in South Africa, gaining just under one million votes, but the "No" vote was defeated 2 to 1 by white voters.^[5]

Treurnicht was the author of no fewer than 16 books, many in the cultural field.

He died on 22 April 1993, in Cape Town, during a heart operation. His death came shortly after the Conservative Party suffered a major blow with the arrest of senior member Clive Derby-Lewis for the murder or Chris Hani. His former deputy minister, Ferdinand Hartzenberg, became the last leader of the Conservative Party.

[edit] References