Daniel Francois Malan

The Afrikaner pastor and journalist Daniel Francois Malan (1874-1959) was the fourth prime minister of South Africa. His advocacy of segregation made him the symbol of white South Africa's defiance of world condemnation of his country's racial policies.

Daniel Malan was born near Riebeeck West on May 22, 1874. He graduated in theology from Stellenbosch and obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Utrecht. On his return home he served for a while as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church and involved himself in work to solve the poor-white problem. A dour champion of the Afrikaner's cause, he was one of the leaders of the second movement to place Afrikaans on a footing of equality with English.

James Hertzog had founded the National party in 1914. The following year Malan was appointed editor of its daily, Die Burger. He campaigned vigorously in its columns for Afrikaner political unity and entered Parliament in 1918. He became leader of the Cape nationalists and was appointed to Hertzog's first Cabinet in 1924. The depression forced Hertzog and Jan Christiaan Smuts into a coalition in 1933. Malan regarded this as a betrayal of nationalist Afrikanerdom. He broke with Hertzog and formed a "purified" National party. In World War II Malan opposed South Africa's participation. His relations with the Nazis were a subject of inquiry after the war.

It is impossible to give a balanced picture of a South African political leader without referring to his views on the race question. Malan's rule was an era of transition from the paternalistic segregation of his predecessors in office to what has been described as the efficient inhumanity of the apartheid ideologues.

In 1947 the National party appointed a committee to draw up a program for the 1948 general elections. Its recommendations were published as a pamphlet in which apartheid was formally stated to be the party's policy. Its main points included the preservation of white supremacy, separation of the races, and retribalization of the Africans. It was this policy which brought the National party to power in May 1948.

African reactions to Malan's rule were without precedent in the history of South Africa. Chief Albert Luthuli, a known moderate who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy of nonviolence, started speaking publicly of "new methods of struggle." The militants demanded "direct action." Violence, in which black and white were killed and wounded, erupted in the main industrial areas between 1948 and 1954. Laws were passed disenfranchising the Africans and tightening segregation in the ownership of land. In 1952 the Africans launched a campaign for the defiance of unjust laws, and more than 8,000 people went to jail. Luthuli was deposed for his support of the campaign.

Crises erupted in the colored, Indian, and white communities. Differences on the constitution developed in the white community, and former servicemen formed the Torch Commando to oppose Malanism. India severed diplomatic relations with South Africa in 1954.

Malan opposed what he regarded as the haste with which the colonial powers were freeing Africa. When Kwame Nkrumah took his seat in the Council of Ministers, Malan protested that this would have unfortunate consequences for the British Commonwealth. He pressed—unsuccessfully—for the incorporation of Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and Swaziland.

Malan resigned as leader of the National party toward the end of 1954 and died on Feb. 7, 1959.

Further Reading

The reports of the debates in South Africa's Parliament from 1918 to 1954 constitute the most reliable references on Malan available to the reader of English. Considerable information on Malan may be found in Edward Callan, Albert John Luthuli and the South African Race Conflict (1962); Brian Bunting, The Rise of the South African Reich (1964); and C. F. J. Muller, ed., 500 Years: A History of South Africa (1969). Recommended for historical background is Eric A. Walker, A History of Southern Africa (1928; 3d ed. 1962). □

Malan, Daniël François (b. 22 May 1874, d. 7 Feb. 1959). Prime Minister of South Africa 1948–54 Born in Allesverloren (near Riebeek West), he obtained a doctorate in divinity from the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands) in 1905, whereupon he returned to South Africa to become a minister for the Dutch Reformed Church in 1905, subsequently engaging in the struggle for the official recognition of Afrikaans as a written language. As a supporter of Hertzog, he was appointed editor of the National Party (NP) newspaper De Burger in Cape Town (1915–23), and entered Parliament for the NP in 1919. He was made Minister of Internal Affairs, of Education, and of Public Health in 1924, and became a champion of Afrikaner identity through his bills granting the Afrikaans language official status and his skilful negotiations to adopt a new flag. He opposed the NP's fusion with Smuts's South African Party in 1934, founding the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party (Purified National Party) instead. He became leader of a reunited NP in 1940. Despite subsequent competition from the right, he managed to unite Afrikaner nationalism behind the NP, which enabled him to win the elections of 1948. Malan's attempt to incorporate South-West Africa (Namibia) into South Africa failed due to the resistance of the UK and the UN. However, he successfully strengthened the system of apartheid through the 1950 Population Registration Act, requiring everyone over 16 to be registered as White, Coloured, Black, or Asiatic, and be issued with separate identity cards. Marriage between Whites and non-Whites was outlawed, and people of mixed race (Coloureds) were denied the vote.

Daniel François Malan , 1874–1959, South African political leader. A minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, he left the pulpit after the outbreak of World War I to become editor of an Afrikaner nationalist paper. Rising to prominence in the National party in Cape Province , he was elected to parliament in 1918. He served (1924–33) as minister of the interior, public health, and education in the cabinet of J. B. M. Hertzog . After World War II, Malan's National party and the small Afrikaner party, campaigning on the issue of white supremacy, came (1948) to power with Malan as prime minister. His government initiated the racial separation laws known as apartheid . He retired as prime minister in 1954.

Malan, Daniel F(rançois) (1874–1959) South African statesman. Rising to prominence in the National Party in Cape Province, he was elected to Parliament in 1918. His political thinking was dominated by desire for secession from Britain and republicanism. He was Prime Minister (1948–54), and initiated the racial separation laws known as APARTHEID.