Johannes "Jan" de Klerk, (22 July 1903 – 24 January 1979
) was a South African politician. He was the father of
F. W. de Klerk, the last apartheid
State President of South Africa
The State President of the Republic of South Africa ( af, Staatspresident) was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, albeit, outside the Commonweal ...
.
As a member of the
National Party, de Klerk served as
interim State President for nine days following the retirement of
Jacobus Johannes Fouché in 1975.
[/] Prior to this, he served as a Senator (1955–1975), Minister of Work and Public Works (1954–1958), Work and Mines (1958–1961),
Home Affairs
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
, Work and Immigration (1961), Home Affairs, Education and Arts and Sciences (1961–1966), Education, Arts and Sciences and Information (1966–1967) and National Education (1968–1969), and President of the Senate from 1969 to 1976.
Biography
The eldest son of Reverend Willem de Klerk, a Dutch Reformed Church minister and his wife Aletta Johanna van Rooy, Jan de Klerk was born 22 July 1903 in
Burgersdorp
Burgersdorp is a medium-sized town in Walter Sisulu in the Joe Gqabi District Municipality of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
In 1869 a Theological Seminary was established here by the ''Gereformeerde Kerk'', but in 1905 it was move ...
. He spent his childhood in
Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier ( Afrikaans for "pretty ri ...
, in South-West
Transvaal. He studied Christian Higher Education at the
Potchefstroom University
The Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (abbreviated as PU for CHE) was a South African university located in Potchefstroom. Instruction was mainly in Afrikaans. In 2004, the university was merged with other institutions to cr ...
, where he obtained a BA degree and a higher education diploma in 1926 after three years.
he was the President of the Student Union, he married Hendrina Cornelia Coetzer on 27 April 1927, and had two sons, Willem Johannes (Wimpie) and Frederik Willem (F.W.).
From 1927 to 1945, Jan de Klerk worked in
Nylstroom
Modimolle, also known as Nylstroom, is a town located near the southern edge of the Waterberg Massif in Limpopo province, South Africa. It is a medium-sized town that focuses primarily on agriculture and farming (citrus, grapes and cattle) as well ...
and
Witwatersrand
The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
. He was headteacher of a school, and secretary of a white workers' trade union. In January 1947, he became administrative secretary of the National Party for the Rand region and in 1948, chief secretary of the NP of Transvaal. From 1949 to 1955, he was a member of the provincial council of Transvaal.
In 1954, Jan de Klerk was named senator and Minister of Work and Public Works in the government of his brother-in-law, Prime Minister
JG Strijdom. This nomination provoked controversy due to the relationship between the two men.
He was a minister in the governments of
Hendrik Verwoerd and
John Vorster. Until 1969, he successively dealt with mines, home affairs, immigration, and education. While Minister of Education, he helped found the
Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) in Johannesburg and the
University of Port Elizabeth (UPE), while also chancellor of the University of Potchefstroom (PU vir CHO). He was twice approached to be honorary president of the republic in 1967 and 1968.
By the time of his retirement from the cabinet, de Klerk had been a cabinet minister for more than fifteen years and was rewarded with the
Decoration for Meritorious Services.
From 1969 to 1976, he presided over the
Senate or upper house of the South African parliament, and this meant that he was briefly interim State President of South Africa in 1975, under a
dormant commission that was invoked. He retired from political life, spent his last few years on a farm and died in
Krugersdorp on 24 January 1979.
Legacy
A school in Krugersdorp is named in honour of Jan de Klerk.
Ancestry
External links
Biography
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klerk, Johannes de
1903 births
1979 deaths
People from Burgersdorp
Afrikaner people
South African people of Dutch descent
National Party (South Africa) politicians
State Presidents of South Africa
Education ministers of South Africa
Presidents of the Senate of South Africa
Ministers of Home Affairs of South Africa