Jacob Daniel du Plessis Basson
The author – a legend in South African politics – was born in Paarl in the Western Cape on 25 July 1918, and was educated at Paarl Boys’ High and the University of Stellenbosch, where he obtained a B.A. (Law) degree in 1939. He married Clare Strauss, from Kenhardt, in 1947, and the couple have two daughters.
Japie Basson’s political career began in 1939 when he became full-time organising secretary of the United Party in the Paarl constituency. After a brief stint as journalist for Die Suiderstem, Basson contested his first election as UP candidate in the Moorreesburg constituency in 1943, losing by 1 022 votes to Adv. F.C. Erasmus (later a Minister of Defence) of the National Party.
|
His association with South West Africa (the present Namibia) commenced in 1947 when he became General Secretary of the United Party in South West Africa, and was strengthened in 1950 when he left the UP and was elected as a National Party Member of Parliament. His differences with Prime Minister H.F. Verwoerd, amongst other things about apartheid laws being extended to SWA, he was forced to leave the NP caucus and finally the party itself.
After a brief period as independent MP he founded the National Union (NU). The NU joined the UP in an election pact in 1961, and eventually amalgamated with the United Party. Basson stood for election as a UP member for the Transvaal constituency of Bezuidenhout in 1961. He won that election, as well as the elections of 1966, 1970, 1974 (uncontested) and that of 1978, and eventually represented the consituency in Parliament until 1980. In 1975 he was elected as UP leader in Transvaal, and was re-elected to this position in the following year.
|
When the UP disbanded in 1977, Basson became a founder member of the Progressive Federal Party (PFP), and was elected leader of the party’s Parliamentary caucus in the following year.
In 1980 he was invited by then Prime Minister P.W. Botha to join the President’s Council and took part in negotiating a new constitution for South Africa.
He retired from active politics in 1984 and joined the NP as an ordinary member in 1985, when he was once again – quite unexpectedly – asked to join the President’s Council. He remained a member of the PC until 1989.
This seasoned politician fought his last election in the Cape Town Gardens constituency in 1987, when he was defeated by the sitting MP, Ken Andrew of the PFP, by 486 votes.
He lives in Clifton nowadays.
Apart from the many articles written for newspapers such as the Sunday Times, Sunday Tribune and Eastern Echo, Japie Basson has preserved his political experiences for posterity in a trilogy of memoirs:
I Raam en Rigting in die Politiek en die Storie van Apartheid
II Politieke Kaarte op die Tafel, and
III Steeds op die Parlementêre Kolfblad.
|
