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Hertzog, J(ames) B(arry) M(unnik) (b. April 3, 1866, near Wellington, Cape Colony, S.Af.—d. Nov. 21, 1942, Pretoria), soldier and statesman who held the post of prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1939. His political principles, as first stated in his speeches in 1912, were “South Africa First” (even before the British Empire) and the “Two Streams Policy,” under which the two parts of the white South African nation—i.e. the British and Afrikaner (Dutch)— would be free from domination by the other. Trained in the law (Victoria College, Stellenbosch, and Amsterdam University), Hertzog practiced in Pretoria (1892—95) until appointed to the high court of the Orange Free State. During the South African War (1899-1902) he rose to assistant chief commandant of the Free State forces and became a resourceful and daring guerrilla leader. Though he would have preferred to fight on, Hertzog was persuaded to sign the Peace of Vereeniging (May
1902).
Hertzog then entered politics by organizing the Orangia Unie Party. When self-government was given to the largely Afrikaner Orange Free State in 1907, he became a member of the cabinet and created a national controversy by championing the Dutch (Netherlandic) language. In 1910 he was taken into the Union’s first cabinet under Louis Botha, but his strong nationalist views caused Botha to form a new government without him in 1912. Hertzog, meanwhile, formed the Afrikaner Nationalist Party (1914), which gained strength by opposing Botha’s active support of Britain during World War I. In 1924, with the support of the Labour Party, Hertzog became prime minister.As head of the state, Hertzog gave the Union its flag, made Afrikaans an official language, and protected home industries.
In impenal conferences he helped to pave the way for the Statute of Westminster (1931), by which Britain recognized the equality of the dominions, including their right to secede. Intrigues within his own party and the failure of his policy to preserve the gold standard moved Hertzog into a coalition with Jan C. Smuts in 1933. The next year the Nationalist and South Afri
13can parties joined to form the United Party. With the strong support of Afrikaners, Hertzog carried through a racial policy that resulted in greater segregation, disenfranchisement of the Cape Bantu, and the expansion of the native reserves. Nevertheless, he was outflanked by the opposition Purified Nationalist Party led by Daniel F. Malan, who advocated more stringent measures.
In the 1938 election Hertzog’s party won a great triumph, but the outbreak of World War II led to his downfall. Though agreed on internal matters, his party was divided on the question of South Africa’s role in the war. He insisted on neutrality; Smuts and his followers felt that South Africa’s place was next to Britain. When Hertzog’s motion to remain out of the war was defeated in Parliament (Sept. 4, 1939) by a vote of 80 to 67, he resigned, and Smuts formed a new government. Healing the breach between himself and Malan’s Purified Nationalists, Hertzog became the leader of the opposition. The reunion survived until Malan’s followers rejected his program of equal rights for British South Africans and Afrikaners. At the end of 1940 an embittered Hertzog retired from politics. Two biographies are L.E. Neame’s General Hertzog (1930), and C.M. van den Heever’s General J.B.M. Hertzog (1946).
