Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966) was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966. Unlike his predecessors, Verwoerd was not born in South Africa, but immigrated at age two with his parents from the Netherlands. A polarizing figure, he is widely considered the architect of apartheid, and was prime minister during the Sharpeville Massacre, the banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress, and the treason trial of Nelson Mandela and others. He also presided over the establishment of a republic through the use of questionable electoral practises in a whites-only referendum. However, in a controversial 2004 poll by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, asking South Africans to name the top 100 South Africans of all time, he was voted 19th.

External links

• Account of the trial of Demitrios Tsafendas, by Judge Wilfred Cooper who led his defence