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Apartheid Unassassinated
But for the colour of his skin there need have been no mystery about the motives of the assassin who this week ended Hendrik Verwoerd's eightyear rule as Prime Minister of the South African Republic, If any people had motive enough to assassinate their ruler it was the 12 million Africans of South Africa.
But for the colour of his skin there need have been no mystery about the motives of the assassin who this week ended Hendrik Verwoerd's eightyear rule as Prime Minister of the South African Republic, If any people had motive enough to assassinate their ruler it was the 12 million Africans of South Africa.
Even before Verwoerd first came to power in 1948 as Minister of Native Affairs in the cabinet of Johannes Strijdom South Africa was by no means a land where the African could live with dignity. He could not aspire for jobs reserved for whites, nor to stay in white residential areas and, of course, he had no vote. Apartheid of a sort thus existed. It was Verwoerd's contribution to elevate it to a philosophy of Government and to devise the instruments to enforce it with, let it be admitted, a minimum of upheaval.
Dear Reader,
