The Making of the Apartheid Plan, 1929-1948

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Hermann Giliomee (2003). The Making of the Apartheid Plan, 1929-1948. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2. Taylor & Francis (Carfax Publishing).

Type	journal article
Scope	Wider apartheid literature
Method	archival narrative
Period studied	1929–1948
Regions	Western Cape, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa
Themes	origins segregation, politics ideology elections, bantustans removals influx, business and state, resistance social movements
Citation key	giliomee2003

Argument

Giliomee argues that apartheid as an operational plan for Afrikaner nationalism did not originate with the Transvaal-based Broederbond intelligentsia or with German romantic nationalism and Nazi racial thought. Its main sources were German missiology as applied by Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) mission strategists in the Orange Free State, and the secular intelligentsia and Cape National Party (NP) leadership in the Western Cape around Die Burger and Stellenbosch. Both drew on mainstream Western social engineering and racial thought, especially the American South. The break with traditional segregation came from party competition between the NP and the United Party (UP) and from white polarisation over the Second World War. He presents apartheid as a modernised paternalism and trusteeship that borrowed elements of liberal ideology. Its most sophisticated form (Gerdener, van Wyk Louw) explains the idea's enduring appeal. The case rests on reconstructing the intellectual and institutional networks, and on the lack of evidence that northern writings influenced the Cape NP leadership.

Evidence and method

Published and unpublished Afrikaans and English sources: DRC mission conference proceedings and synod and Federal Mission Council minutes, parliamentary debates (HAD 1944), Die Burger and other press, the 1947 Sauer Report, the 1937 Cape coloured commission report (UG 54/1937), Broederbond material via Stals's unpublished history, D. F. Malan's papers, memoirs, dissertations, and a 2000-01 Institute for Reconciliation and Justice poll of 3,727 interviews.

Place in the debates

• Origins of apartheid: continuity with segregation vs. novel ideology (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). Rejects the view of Keppel-Jones and Davenport and Saunders that apartheid was simply old segregation relabelled. Sees a break driven by party competition and the war, but within mainstream Western racial thought and social engineering.
• Nazi/German nationalist roots of apartheid (Moodie, Furlong) (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). Rejects the German/Nazi linkage as 'tenuous at best'. The Broederbond and northern intellectuals contributed little, and the Cape NP and DRC missiology were the main sources.
• Materialist vs. ideological explanations (Legassick, O'Meara, Posel) (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). Gives priority to ideology, the survival of the Afrikaner volk, and justification of political domination over the cheap-labour-supply argument. He concedes that the Sauer Report focused on eliminating 'surplus' labour and channelling labour to mines, farms and industry, and that it exposed an unresolved clash between migrant labour and settled labour.
• Moral character of apartheid thought (heresy/racism vs. idealism) (see Origins, coherence and ideology of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism). Stresses the 'idealistic' trusteeship and liberal-nationalist variant (Gerdener, van Wyk Louw), which he credits with the idea's resilience, while acknowledging that it justified denial of black rights.

Findings

• The main thesis: apartheid was not a Transvaal Broederbond or Nazi-derived product but came from Free State missionary strategists and Western Cape intellectuals. (p. 2)

  was not, as the current orthodoxy suggests, the product of an Afrikaner Broederbond intelligentsia based in the Transvaal and affected by German romantic nationalism and Nazi racial thought.

• Apartheid represented a break from segregation, driven mainly by party competition and wartime polarisation. (p. 2)

  due mainly to party political competition between the National Party and United Party, obliging the former to come up with an alternative that was both more radical and more 'idealistic'

• The term was first recorded in its later sense in 1929 at a DRC conference on the 'native question'. (p. 3)

  In the fundamental idea of our missionary work and not in racial prejudice one must seek an explanation for the spirit of apartheid that has always characterised our [the DRC's] conduct.

• The Broederbond and northern intelligentsia contributed little to the apartheid plan. (p. 20)

  both the Bond and the members of the Afrikaner intelligentsia in the north contributed little to the apartheid plan that took shape in the decade prior to 1948.

• The Cape NP was tightly controlled from the Western Cape and Afrikaner financial power was concentrated in the south. (p. 6)

  After the political realignment of 1933-1934, the NP at the national level was tightly controlled by D. F. Malan and a small group of advisors in the Western Cape

• NP leaders pointed to the American South as their reference point for apartheid legislation. (p. 6)

  In introducing the apartheid legislation, the Nationalist leadership made it clear that their point of reference was the American South.

• Early secular apartheid thinking proposed progressively withdrawing Africans from the white economy and replacing them with white labour. (p. 14)

  blacks had to be steadily withdrawn from the white economy, and transferred to the territories where they 'belonged', with white labour taking their place.

• The Sauer Report aimed at eliminating 'surplus' black labour rather than black labour, and left unresolved the clash between migrant labour and the demand for settled labour. (p. 19)

  The whole thrust of the report is the elimination of 'surplus' black labour, not black labour, and the channelling of sufficient labour to the mines, farms and industry.

• The Sauer Commission looked to ministers, academics and journalists for justification, not to business or farm interests. (p. 18)

  It did not invite representations from corporate bodies, such as the agricultural unions or Afrikaner business.

• Apartheid was a flexible ideology that accommodated both hard-liners and 'idealist' theorists, who wanted less dependence on black labour and a development programme for the reserves. (p. 20)

  the theorists wanted whites to reduce their dependence on black labour, and launch a dramatic development programme for the reserves to justify the denial of black rights in the common area.

• The 2000-01 poll found large shares, including 65% of Afrikaners, agreeing that the basic idea of apartheid was good. (p. 4)

  Afrikaners 65 29 6

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source	Kind	Period	How used
Institute for Reconciliation and Justice poll (end 2000/early 2001), 3,727 interviews	household or labour survey microdata	end 2000 - beginning 2001	Shows the continuing appeal of the 'basic idea' of apartheid across groups (Table 1), used to support the claim of the idea's resilience.
House of Assembly Debates (HAD), 1944 (Malan and Sauer speeches, cols. 75, 6697-6699, 6713)	parliamentary debates	1944	Documents the first parliamentary use of 'apartheid' and the paternalist/trusteeship content of Malan's and Sauer's defence of it.
Die Burger (1943, 1944 and later columns incl. 'Dawie')	newspapers periodicals	1943-1951	Evidence for first press use of 'apartheid' in 1943 and for Die Burger's role as promoter of the policy.
Die Kerkbode (March 1941) and The Star (1945), via Scholtz, Ontwikkeling van die Politieke Denke van die Afrikaner	newspapers periodicals	1941, 1945	Shows that the DRC and even critical press rejected totalitarianism and did not see the NP as Nazi.
Broederbond archives as reported by Ernst Stals, 'Die Geskiedenis van die Afrikaner Broederbond, 1918-1994' (unpublished manuscript, 1998)	union or movement records	1934-1947	Used to show the Bond's committees and conferences failed to formulate a racial policy before 1948.
Schoeman, Die Broederbond en die Afrikaner-politiek (incl. Albert Hertzog's 1946-47 statements and diary)	secondary literature compilation	1946-1947	Source for Hertzog's despondent comments showing northern intelligentsia lacked a plan.
University of Stellenbosch Library, D. F. Malan Collection (incl. account of Malan's reply to Transvaal delegation, 5 Feb 1947; son's memoir)	state archives	1947	Evidence for Malan's views on neo-Calvinism and on the church leading apartheid.
USTSL: 'NG Sendingraadnotules' and Minutes of the Federale Sendingraad van die NGK (1944, 1947)	union or movement records	1935-1947	Document the DRC's 1935 missions policy and the 1947 Federal Mission Council apartheid proposals.
Proceedings of the 1929 Kroonstad DRC conference: Die NG Kerk en die Naturellevraagstuk (1929) / Die NG Kerk in die OVS	union or movement records	1929	Source for J. C. du Plessis's first recorded use of 'apartheid' and Strydom's missions arguments.
UG 54/1937, Verslag van die Kommissie van Ondersoek insake die Kaapse Kleurling (Wilcocks Commission), incl. Verwoerd testimony	commission or official report	1937	Shows the Afrikaner members' and Verwoerd's testimony outlined emerging apartheid ideology on housing, labour and coloured/African competition.
Verslag van die Kleurvraagstuk-kommissie van die HNP (Sauer Report, 1947)	commission or official report	1947	Used for the NP's formulation of apartheid, its mission-policy language and its labour 'surplus' emphasis.
Sauer Commission circulars and replies (c. 5,000 circulars, c. 500 replies), via Brits, 'The Voice of the People' and Op die Vooraand van Apartheid	secondary literature compilation	1947	Shows how the commission solicited opinion from party members, academics and ministers rather than business bodies.
Gerdener's journal Op die Horison (1947) and Reguit Koers Gehou (1951); van der Watt PhD thesis on Gerdener	newspapers periodicals	1945-1951	Evidence for Gerdener's idealistic apartheid and trusteeship formulations.
N. P. van Wyk Louw, Versamelde Prosa, vol. 1 (1946 and later essays)	other	1940s-1960s	Primary text for the 'liberal nationalism' and 'survival in justice' argument.
Coertze, Language and van Eeden, Die Oplossing van die Naturellevraagstuk in Suid-Afrika (1943); Eiselen; Thom; du Plessis in Koers (1940)	other	1940-1949	Contemporary academic texts showing the secular intelligentsia's apartheid formulations.
Kinghorn, 'Die Groei van 'n Teologie' and Lombard PhD (1985) on DRC mission policy documents	secondary literature compilation	1931-1949	Source for DRC synod resolutions of 1931, 1935 and 1949.
Brits correspondence with collector Willem Kleynhans on NP election material (23 March 2002)	interviews oral history	2002	Supports the claim that the NP never used the slogans Mandela attributes to it.
Keppel-Jones 1947 lecture 'The Political Situation in South Africa' and When Smuts Goes	other	1947	Shows English-speaking whites shared the determination to maintain white domination.

Inference

Quantification: Descriptive tables.

Qualitative intellectual and political history: close reading of church, party and academic texts, parliamentary debates and archival minutes, with a regional comparison of Transvaal (Broederbond) and Cape/Free State actors; argument by absence of evidence for northern influence and by chronological tracing of ideas. A single poll table is used only for the contemporary resilience point.

Key claims

Claim	Basis	Strength
Apartheid's ideology originated mainly in DRC mission circles (Free State) and Western Cape secular intelligentsia, not the Transvaal Broederbond. (p. 375)	DRC conference proceedings (1929), mission council minutes, Malan collection, Die Burger, Stals' reading of Broederbond archives; argued by contrast of actors.	Partial data
The Broederbond and northern intellectuals contributed little to the apartheid plan before 1948. (p. 379)	Stals' unpublished history of the Broederbond, Schoeman's account, Hertzog's statements and the 1938-1947 conference record.	Partial data
Apartheid had no meaningful Nazi roots; its reference point was the American South and Western social engineering. (p. 377)	Dönges's parliamentary justification, Die Kerkbode and The Star statements, Verwoerd's lecture notes, plus sociologists' comparative judgments.	Illustrative or anecdotal
The Sauer Commission's report reflected grass-roots NP and cultural-elite opinion and contained unresolved contradictions on labour rather than a blueprint. (p. 390)	Sauer Report text, circular and reply numbers via Brits, Posel's analysis.	Partial data
Malan's 1944 parliamentary defence rooted apartheid in paternalism and trusteeship, with idealistic variants from Gerdener and van Wyk Louw. (p. 388)	HAD 1944 cols. 6697-6713, Gerdener's writings, Louw's Versamelde Prosa.	Partial data
The Cape NP and Afrikaner financial/press power in the south dominated the national NP, which explains southern influence. (p. 378)	Descriptions of Nasionale Pers, Sanlam and caucus ties, with no cited quantitative data.	Asserted

The author's caveats

Notes that the poll question did not define apartheid, so responses must be interpreted by assumption. Acknowledges that Cronje's grass-roots resonance has still to be examined, that Stals' study is unpublished, and that the northern intellectuals' influence cannot be shown ('no evidence').

Gaps in the evidence

The argument that the Broederbond and northern writers were uninfluential rests largely on one unpublished history and on absence of evidence; direct archival work on Broederbond and NP caucus records, correspondence and readership or circulation data for Die Burger and the Transvaal publications could test it. Claims about Cape financial and press dominance lack figures (Sanlam, Nasionale Pers holdings) that existed in company records. There is no systematic content analysis of the Sauer Commission's roughly 500 replies, which survive in archives, and no evidence linking ideas to the policy and labour outcomes after 1948.

Replicability: Data described but not public.