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Purified National Party
1934–1939 South African political party From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Purified National Party (Afrikaans: Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party, GNP) was an Afrikaner nationalist political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1934 as a splinter group opposed to the merging of the National Party (NP) into the United Party (UP) led by future prime minister D. F. Malan, then merged with a UP faction led by former prime minister J. B. M. Hertzog to form the Herenigde Nasionale Party ('Reunited National Party'; HNP) in 1939.
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After the NP and South African Party (SAP) signed agreements to form the UP in late June, Malan established the party from NP dissident elements. 19 National MPs switched to the GNP during July and August, making the party the official opposition to the UP. At the 1938 general election – the only federal election the GNP contested – the party received 31.3% of the popular vote and gained 8 seats, but remained in distant opposition to a UP supermajority. After Hertzog resigned as prime minister and his UP faction split in opposition to South Africa's support for the Allies during World War II, the GNP and Hertzog's faction formed the HNP. While Hertzog was initially dominant and led the new party in opposition, he was soon overtaken by Malan's faction; Malan was elected prime minister in 1948 and the HNP retook the National Party name soon after.
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NP–SAP merger and founding (1933–1934)
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D. F. Malan (left) led the breakaway faction that became the GNP, opposed to the merging of the National and South African parties under leaders J. B. M. Hertzog (middle) and Jan Smuts (right).
In the lead-up to the 1933 general election[1] and amid the Great Depression,[2] NP prime minister Hertzog formed a broad coalition with the SAP led by former and future prime minister Jan Smuts on 31 March.[1][3][4] After the coalition's success in depression recovery, a public movement to formally merge the NP and SAP emerged, while some local party chapters began to work as a single entity, particularly in the Orange Free State and Transvaal.[1]
While Hertzog officially began supporting uniting the parties in August 1933 – believing he had convinced both Smuts's faction and Malan's hardline Afrikaner nationalist faction of its benefits – the Cape Province NP branch struck down a resolution supporting a merger 142–38 on 5 October[5] and Malan stated that the Cape branch was prepared to operate independently if a merger went through. Malan negotiated with Hertzog at Groote Schuur, an official residence of the prime minister,[6] on 2 and 4 February 1934: Hertzog met Malan's demands by promising to advise the monarch to appoint an Afrikaner governor-general if the office became vacant during his premiership, promising to abolish criminal appeals to the Privy Council once pending appeals were resolved, and allowing members of the new party be allowed to propagandise for republicanism,[7] which led Malan to declare that the Cape branch supported the merger in theory.[8]
On 16 February,[8] a letter exchange between Cape NP secretary[9] Frans Erasmus and Hertzog detailing several concessions made was published to the press,[8] which Hertzog and Malan further used to promote unity.[10] Alongside the previous concessions made to Malan, Hertzog stated that he supported South Africa's right to secede from the Commonwealth of Nations and to remain neutral in British wars, although he refused to include such a statement in the party manifesto, stating that it "would confuse rather than clarify and might suggest doubts as to the Union's true constitutional position".[8] These concessions agitated the SAP – which the NP was still in negotiations with – and created a public perception that the letter was a manifesto for a merged party.[10]
Smuts rejected Hertzog's views on the monarchy in an 18 February letter, stating that the party must support the status quo, although he conceded that an alliance between Afrikaner nationalists and British South Africans would be impossible if a united position was required on the Crown. Hertzog also replied that he agreed with Smuts's reply,[10] which angered Malan's faction, who believed the reply showed Hertzog's multiplicity. Malan stated on 22 February that "the events of the last few days have definitely killed fusion", and his faction became uncompromising in its opposition,[11] highlighting irreconcilable disagreements between the SAP and Malan's faction.[12]
By 23 April, Hertzog and the SAP had agreed on draft terms of a merger, which included the principles the initial coalition was built on alongside an agreement for a potential separate legislature representing native Africans. On the Crown, the agreement provided for the status quo but stated support for a "South Africa first" policy, not entering obligations which would hurt the country. The NP Federal Council and SAP Union Head Committee separately considered the agreement on 30 June; while the SAP easily agreed, overcoming opposition from a faction led by Charles Stallard, the NP debate lasted into the morning of 31 June due to opposition from Malan's faction. After the NP ultimately decided in favour of the merger 13–7, Malan read a statement to the Federal Council:[11][13]
The Head Committee has instructed the representatives of the Cape Province that, in case matters developed as they have now done, they should inform the Federal Council that it had been decided to recommend to the next Congress of the Nationalist Party in the Cape that the accepted basis be rejected and that the Nationalist Party shall continue to exist.
Malan's faction wrote a statement condemning the merger, criticising its status quo position on the Crown, economic views, and calling for South African neutrality and a "people's party" not controlled by a political machine.[13] Malan reorganised the remaining dissident elements of the NP into the GNP, and 19 of the 75 National MPs (14 from the Cape Province, four from the Orange Free State, and one from the Transvaal) alongside several provincial council members switched to the GNP from July to August 1934; the party formally became the official opposition when the House of Assembly convened in January 1935. A SAP faction led by Stallard who opposed Smuts working with the NP also broke away, forming the Dominion Party with 3 other MPs in August. The GNP Federale Raad (Federal Council) met in Bloemfontein to establish a manifesto on 5 July, and the SAP and NP officially merged into the UP on 5 December.[12][14][15]
1935–1938
The new party's strongest base was in the Cape Province,[9] where Malan salvaged large amounts of NP dissident elements, partially due to Erasmus's loyalty to the provincial organisation over the federal party. The party was backed by Cape Town newspaper Die Burger (which Malan had previously been editor-in-chief for) and its Die Nasionale Pers ('The National Press') publishing house. In the Natal and Transvaal provinces, the GNP was decimated as almost all of the local NP supported the merger; American academic Newell Stultz remarked that "for many years the GNP existed in Natal in name only" and "the position in the Transvaal seemed initially as bad".[16]
Attempting to grow a presence in the Transvaal beginning in 1936, the GNP established Die Transvaler, a daily newspaper in Johannesburg, in October 1937. The Transvaal party was heavily personally financed by future prime minister J. G. Strijdom, the Transvaal's only GNP MP, who also emerged as a de facto leader of the provincial party despite being a mostly unknown backbencher before the UP merger. Despite Strijdom's contributions the party remained limited on money, being unable to pay full-time employees.[16]
While the Orange Free State – which Hertzog came from – supported the merger, the GNP held a stronger position due to a competent, albeit young, minority who opposed the merger. The party was supported by Die Volksblad (a Nasionale Pers affiliate) and popular MP N.J. van der Merwe, although the UP remained dominant in the province.[17]
Merge into the HNP (1939)
In 1939 the question of South African participation in World War II caused a split in the United Party. Hertzog's Nationalist wing broke away and merged with the Purified National Party to form the Reunited (Herenigde) National Party. This party went on to defeat the United Party in the 1948 general election.
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Structure
Like the party it split from, the GNP was a federation of provincial bodies, all of which had separate constitutions and considerable autonomy, deciding the party's provincial-level policies separately. Provincial councils were composed of delegates from subdivision committees or local branches in the Transvaal. While the Federal Council – with equal representation from each province – was charged with inter-provincial communication and press relations, coordinating power was also exerted by the party's parliamentary caucus.[9]
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Political positions
An Afrikaner nationalist party, the GNP sought to fight UP attempts to promote a common identity between Afrikaners and English-speaking South Africans.[17] It attempted to undermine Afrikaner confidence in the UP merger, thus reducing sympathies to the English-speaking population, and argued that the merger contradicted NP principles including republicanism and the protection and economic growth of Afrikaners.
With the political centre occupied by the UP, the GNP pursued more radical policies, including antisemitism,[18] in response to growing Jewish immigration, Afrikaner irritation with Jews, and similar movements in Europe. The GNP began calling for a halt to Jewish immigration in 1936 and its Transvaal branch banned Jewish members the next year. At the 1938 election, the GNP formed electoral pacts in some constituencies with the South African Gentile National Socialist Movement ('Greyshirts'), an antisemitic political movement.[19]
Election results
References
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