Thomas Louw de Beer was a company director in South Africa and the last chairman of the South African secret organization called the
Afrikaner Broederbond
The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, ...
. After the secrecy was dropped a new organization were founded called the
Afrikanerbond
The Afrikanerbond (''Afrikaner League''), established in 1994, is the successor to the Afrikaner Broederbond, formerly a South African secret society. Unlike its predecessor, membership is open to anyone over the age of 18 years who identifies w ...
. He was the first chairman of the new organization. The Afrikanerbond is today open for any gender and race.
Roots
De Beer was born on 18 May 1935, to Roelof Adriaan de Beer and Wilhelmina Hendrika Burger. In 1966 he married Emmerentia Aletta Lombard. He obtained a Bcomm degree. He further is a qualified Chartered Accountant, CA (SA), registered at the
South African Institute of Chartered Accountants
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), South Africa’s pre-eminent accountancy body, is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading accounting institutes. The institute provides a wide range of support services to m ...
.
Work life
He started to work in 1954 as an accountant in
Boshof
Boshof is a farming town in the west of the Free State province, South Africa.
The town is 55 km north-east of Kimberley on the R64 road. Established in March 1856 on the farm Vanwyksvlei, which had been named after a Griqua who sowed his ...
,
Orange Free State
The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...
before he joined Federale Mynbou in 1965. In 1978, he was awarded the position of Chief Financial officer at
Gencor Limited. In 1986 he became chairman of Genbel South Africa Limited, an investment company.
During his career he was directors of:
*
Kumba Resources Limited – listed on the
JSE in 2001
*
Iscor Limited
ArcelorMittal South Africa is part of the steel company Arcelor-Mittal. The company was originally Iscor Ltd., a South African parastatal steel company. It was founded in 1928 and was first listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in 1989.
Hist ...
– which was subsequently taken over by
ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second larg ...
Ltd.
* Trans Natal Coal Corporation – an investment company in the Coal Operations category
*
Sappi
Sappi Limited, originally incorporated as ''South African Pulp and Paper Industries Limited'' in 1936, is a South African pulp and paper company with global operations.
Products and operation
South African Pulp and Paper Industries Limite ...
– South African listed company in the wood and paper industry
*MES – de Beer was chairman of this non-profit company which aimed to better the prospects of homeless people in urban areas.
Afrikaner Broederbond
He became a member in 1963, and was chairman from 1993 to 1994.
Afrikanerbond
He was chairman from 1994–2000.
De Beer was responsible for changing the organization to a non-secret, non-sexist and non-racial organization. He believes that the new organization can play a facilitation role. He felt that
Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
right wing political parties members (which were not welcome in the old Afrikaner Broederbond) needed to come to terms with reality. De Beer however felt that the
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
language and Christianity, together with cultural norms would remain part of the new organization.
Recognition
He received the Ellen Kuzwayo Council Award from the
University of Johannesburg
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Te ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:de Beer, Tom
1935 births
Afrikaner people
Living people