Very often when you post anything on Jan Smuts, some obdurate paleo-conservatives emerge to vilify him, using rhetoric the old Afrikaner Nationalists used for political one-upmanship, but only this time, to these people, his “volks-verraaier” (traitor to his people) status somehow “proven” as an absolute truism.

Little consideration is given to his actual relationship with the ultra right conservatives when he was alive, and how those ultra-right Afrikaner conservatives actually viewed Smuts in his lifetime.

So, let’s look at Dr. D.F. Malan, the leader of the ‘pure’ Afrikaner Nationalists and Jan Smuts’ greatest political antagonist and arch political rival – Smuts’ nemesis. Here’s something about Jan Smuts and D.F. Malan many people don’t know.

We are all familiar with Allesverloren wines at Riebeeck West in the Swartland, but did you know the original Allesverloren farm was owned by the Malan family and it was also the birthplace to Daniël François Malan, and did you know a portion of Allesverloren farm also belonged to the Smuts family and also Jan Christiaan Smuts’ birthplace?

So, both Jan Smuts and D.F. Malan grew up in the small ‘dorp’ of Reibeeck West in the Western Cape, Jannie Smuts was slightly older than Daniël, but they both attended the same Sunday school and here’s a photo, a young Smuts stands behind a slightly younger Malan. Later, Smuts would teach the Sunday school class with Malan as one of his students – think about that, and such was the religious influence on the young Daniël Malan, he would go on to become a NG Church minister and complete a Doctorate in theology.

The closeness of the Smuts and Malan families did not stop there, later Jan Smut’s father and D.F. Malan’s father shared a semi-detached house together – they were neighbours – literally.

When Jan Smuts died in 1950, Dr. D.F. Malan was attending a National Party political rally to the party faithful and whipping up support for the edicts of Apartheid. An aide walked up to him and handed him a note with the news of Smuts’ death, what he does next would surprise even the hardest right-wing Afrikaner Nationalist.

Instead of gleeful celebration of the demise of this most hated enemy of the Apartheid cause, the man repeatedly called a ‘traitor’ by the Nationalists, a man who had the ‘blood’ of Jopie Fourie on his hands, the ‘hansopper’ and ‘joiner’ turncoat who favoured the union of the Afrikaner with the hated British to heal South Africa over and above separationist Afrikaner rule, the King’s ‘hanskakie’ puppet, old ‘slim Jannie’ who put global interests and governance ahead of his ‘volk’ (white Afrikaner peoples) – no Dr. Malan changed the tone – this was no longer about political one-upmanship and rhetorical language – his reaction to the news was somewhat different to what most people now would even think.

Dr. Malan immediately turned pale, he slowly sat down, slumped over and cupped his hands to his face. He had lost a lifelong and very close friend. Their political positions aside, Malan had a deep sense of admiration for his old friend.

Malan even had to be helped up to stand at the microphone, where he announced that “a great figure of our time” has just died, he called the Nationalists to silence and then cancelled the rally. His colleagues reporting that they had never seen Malan so distressed.

DF Malan’s reaction says a lot about Smuts, the importance he had in the formation of South Africa, he was the original ‘reconciler’ of the warring nations in South Africa, his idea of union based his philosophy of holism – all parts of the sphere make the whole, made the state of South Africa as we know it, he was quite literally the ‘father’ of the South African nation, and now he was lost.

Dr. Daniël Malan, still had it within him to respect Jan Smuts as a man, a teacher and a statesman – in fact he never lost his respect for Smuts. He would never have stooped as low in personally vilifying Smuts as some modern protagonists do, he understood the boundaries of simple politicking versus simple respect shown between two seasoned politicians and old family friends who hold opposing political views.

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Written and Researched by Peter Dickens

With the helpful assistance of Philip Weyers and Monika Wilde, my deepest thanks once again to the Smuts family.

To read a little more on Allesverloren relationship follow this link: https://mansellupham.wordpress.com/2023/10/11/allesverloren/

Related work:

Jan Smuts: “The force of his intellect has enriched the wisdom of the whole human race”- the death of Jan Smuts.

References:

Jan Smuts reconsidered Hermann Giliomee 26 January 2016.

Richard Steyn’s Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness 2015.