Rowan Cronjé

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The Reverend
Rowan Cronjé
MP
Rowan Cronjé.jpg
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bophuthatswana
In office
1986 – 27 April 1994
PresidentLucas Mangope
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Minister of Defence of Bophuthatswana
In office
1986 – 27 April 1994
PresidentLucas Mangope
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Minister of Aviation of Bophuthatswana
In office
1986 – 27 April 1994
PresidentLucas Mangope
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Deputy Minister of Lands, Natural Resources, and Rural Development of Zimbabwe Rhodesia
In office
1 June 1979 – 12 December 1979
Prime MinisterAbel Muzorewa
MinisterGeorge Bodzo Nyandoro
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Member of Parliament
In office
1979–1985
Succeeded by
ConstituencyCentral
In office
1970–1979
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
ConstituencyCharter
3rd Minister of Education of Rhodesia
In office
1978 – 1 June 1979
Prime MinisterIan Smith
Preceded byDenis Walker
Succeeded byOffice abolished
1st Minister of Manpower and Social Affairs of Rhodesia
In office
1977 – 1 June 1979
Prime MinisterIan Smith
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byOffice abolished
2nd Minister of Labour and Social Welfare of Rhodesia
In office
1966–1977
Prime MinisterIan Smith
Preceded by
Succeeded byOffice abolished
2nd Minister of Health of Rhodesia
In office
1966 – 1 June 1979
Prime MinisterIan Smith
Preceded by
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Personal details
Born22 September 1937
South Africa
Died11 March 2014 (aged 76)
Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Political partyRhodesian Front (before 1981)
Freedom Alliance (after 1981)
OccupationPolitician; minister

Rowan Cronjé (22 September 1937 – 8 March 2014) was a Rhodesian politician who served in the cabinet under prime ministers Ian Smith and Abel Muzorewa, and was later a Zimbabwean MP. He emigrated to South Africa in 1985 and served in the government of Bophuthatswana.

From 1966 to 1979, nearly the entirety of Rhodesia's independent history, he served as Minister of Health and Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. From 1977 to 1979, he held the newly created office of Minister of Manpower and Social Affairs, and from 1978, was the joint Minister of Education. He was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1985, serving in the parliaments of both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. He was briefly Deputy Minister of Lands, Natural Resources, and Rural Development of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979. In the 1980s, Cronjé relocated to South Africa, serving as Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Aviation in Bophuthatswana in the early 1990s.

Early life[]

Cronjé was born in South Africa to parents of Afrikaner descent,[1][2][3] before emigrating to Southern Rhodesia, which was then governed as a British colony.

Political career[]

Rhodesia[]

In 1966, less than a year after Rhodesia declared independence, Cronjé was appointed Minister of Health and Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, succeeding in both offices.[3][4][5][6][7][8] He served in these positions until Rhodesia was dissolved and replaced by Zimbabwe in 1979. As labour minister, he oversaw a period in which Rhodesia was experiencing a shortage of workers on its farms. In 1975, he cited 36,000 vacancies for farm jobs, saying, "There is no unemployment in Rhodesia. The fact is we have a labor shortage."[9][10] He also dismissed sanctions or the Rhodesian Bush War as a threat to the Rhodesian economy, insisting as late as 1978 that population growth was the greater problem.[11][12]

In 1970, Cronjé ran for the Rhodesian Parliament for the Charter constituency. Running unopposed, he was elected with 1,715 votes. He ran for reelection in 1974 against Neil Diarmid Campbell Housman Herbert Wilson, winning with 1,147 votes, or 92%. He ran for a third term in 1977 against Independent candidate Leonard George Idensohn, winning with 1,023 votes, or 90%. During his time in Parliament, Cronjé was leader of the moderate faction of the Rhodesian Front party.[13]

In 1977, Cronjé was appointed minister of the newly-created Ministry of Manpower, Industrial Relations, and Social Affairs of Rhodesia.[12][14] The next year, he succeeded Denis Walker as the third Minister of Education of Rhodesia.[15] He served in both positions until Rhodesia dissolved in 1979. In 1978, Gibson Magarombe was appointed to serve with Cronjé as co-Minister of Health and co-Minister of Education.[16]

As Minister of Manpower and Social Affairs, he oversaw the elections process as Rhodesia transitioned from white minority rule to multiracial democracy.[17][18] In February 1978, Cronjé was involved in the reaching of an agreement between the Rhodesian government and black leaders on the future of the Rhodesian military.[19][20] In regard to the rebels fighting the government in the Rhodesian Bush War, the leaders agreed that amnesty would be declared and that guerrillas would be offered retraining for entry into the existing army.[19][20]

Cronjé said regarding the Rhodesian Bush War, "Black and white will continue fighting until we have won this war." He went on to criticize foreign nations' involvement in the Rhodesian peace and transition efforts, challenging Britain and the United States, and criticizing the "Marxist masters", referring to the Soviet Union and China.[19][20]

Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe[]

When Zimbabwe Rhodesia, an unrecognized successor state to Rhodesia, was established on 1 June 1979, Cronjé was named by Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa to be Deputy Minister of Lands, Natural Resources, and Rural Development.[13] He held that office until Zimbabwe Rhodesia's disestablishment on 12 December 1979.[citation needed]

In Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, 20 of the 100 seats in the House of Assembly in Parliament were reserved for whites, a system that remained until 1987. Cronjé ran for election to one of the seats in 1979, winning election as the unopposed as the Rhodesian Front candidate for the Central constituency. He was reelected in 1980 after running yet again as the unopposed RF candidate,[21] and he served as a Member of Parliament until 1985, when he chose not to run for reelection and emigrated to South Africa shortly after.[citation needed]

Bophuthatswana[]

In 1985, Cronjé left Zimbabwe and emigrated to South Africa, where he became involved in the Afrikaner volkstaat movement, which proposed a separate state with self-determination for the Afrikaner population in South Africa.[1] He relocated to Bophuthatswana, a bantustan which the South African government made independent in 1977 and which was led by President Lucas Mangope. During the transition away from apartheid in South in the early 1990s, the Mangope administration in Bophuthatswana allied itself with Afrikaner nationalists, as they both shared the common goal of a future South Africa of various independent states divided by ethnicity.[1][22] He was also, during the 1980s, a personal advisor to the Ciskei government.[1][23]

In 1986, President Mangope appointed Cronjé Minister of Defence,[1][2][22][24][25][26][27][28] Minister of Aviation,[1][29] and Minister of Foreign Affairs[1][8][22][30] (or Minister of State) of Bophuthatswana. He served in those three positions until Bophuthatswana's dissolution in 1994. As a member of the Bophuthatswana cabinet, and in his capacity as defense minister, Cronjé was at the forefront of the bantustan's effort to remain independent of the post-apartheid South Africa, serving as chief negotiator with South African officials.[1][24] He also served as chairman of the Freedom Alliance, a group that brought together tribal leaders, bantustan leaders, and conservative white groups who each strove for self-determination at the beginning of the post-apartheid era.[24][31][32][33]

Cronjé said in 1993 about the self-government of Bophuthatswana, "We've got kids who are 16 years old who never knew apartheid. It has restored the self-dignity of blacks here."[1][24] Defending the large number of white cabinet members in Bophuthatswana, he said, "[President Mangope] has realized from the first day, to run the complicated business of a government is not yet within the grasp of his people."[1]

As the South African government under President F. W. de Klerk grew closer to reaching an agreement with the African National Congress on the future government of South Africa, so was more pressure placed on Bophuthatswana, from both sides, to agree to give up its quasi-independence and reenter South Africa. Cronjé worked to defuse tensions and avoid confrontation with South Africa, hoping to maintain Bophuthatswana's independence into the future.[24] He said in 1992, "We have experienced the fruits of independence. To give that up, there must be very good reasons."[31]

He argued that the homeland would be able to withstand an economic blockade by South Africa, saying in 1993, "We'll have to tighten our belts"[2] and "reduce our budget."[22] He also made it clear that if South Africa tried to use force on Bophuthatswana to rejoin, the country would fight back and would have allies to help defend it, saying, "It would be the beginning of a civil war in South Africa."[2]

Ultimately, by December 1993, Bophuthatswana gave up its ambitions for independence and rejoined the negotiations with the South African government and the ANC.[33] By 1994, Bophuthatswana was merged into the new South Africa, and Cronjé's cabinet positions went out of existence.

Death[]

On 11 March 2014, Cronjé died in his sleep at his home in Pretoria, at the age of 76. His funeral was held on 15 March of that year.[34]

Personal life[]

Cronjé was an ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in Rhodesia.[35] His brother-in-law was South African Conservative Member of Parliament .[29]

Electoral history[]

Year Office District Rhodesian Front Other
1970 Member of Parliament Charter Rowan Cronjé 100% Unopposed –
1974 Member of Parliament Charter Rowan Cronjé 92.4% Neil Wilson 7.6%
1977 Member of Parliament Charter Rowan Cronjé 90.2% Leonard George Idensohn 9.8%
1979 Member of Parliament Central Rowan Cronjé 100% Unopposed –
1980 Member of Parliament Central Rowan Cronjé 100% Unopposed –

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Keller, Bill (28 November 1993). "Homeland, Apartheid's Child, Is Defying Change". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d Sly, Liz (5 September 1993). "Homeland A Throwback To The Old S. Africa". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Smith-Vorster Meeting". 17 March 2017. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Steinberg, S. (26 December 2016). The Statesman's Year-Book 1965-66: The One-Volume ENCYCLOPAEDIA of all nations. Springer. ISBN 9780230270947.
  5. ^ "PRIME PubMed | Speech by the Hon. Rowan Cronje, Minister of Health, at the International Nurses' Day dinner on Monday 12th May, 1975, Ambassador Hotel, Salisbur". www.unboundmedicine.com. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Rhodesian manpower worrying figures" (PDF). Financial Mail. 4 April 1975. p. 6. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  7. ^ "Full text of "Chiefs of State and Cabinet members of foreign governments /National Foreign Assessment Center."". archive.org. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  8. ^ a b Special Report of the Director-General on the Application of the Declaration concerning the Policy of Apartheid in South Africa (PDF). Geneva: International Labour Office. 1984. ISBN 92-2-103435-6. ISSN 0074-6681.
  9. ^ "Jobs for the boys?" (PDF). Financial Mail. 16 January 1976. p. 14. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  10. ^ A.M., Hawkins (1 January 1976). "African labour supplies in the Rhodesian economy". Rhodesian Journal of Economics. 10 (2).
  11. ^ "Rhodesia's Public Enemy No. 1". Rhodesia Herald. 20 May 1978.
  12. ^ a b Brownell, Josiah (2011). The Collapse of Rhodesia: Population Demographics and the Politics of Race (PDF). London: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84885-475-8.
  13. ^ a b Burns, John F. (31 May 1979). "Muzorewa Names a Cabinet, Reserving Key Roles for Himself and Smith". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  14. ^ Guardians of White Power: The Rhodesian Security Forces. London: The Anti-Apartheid Movement. 1977. p. 3.
  15. ^ Progress Report of the Ad Hoc Working Groups of Experts Prepared in Accordance with Commission on Human Rights Resolution 12 (XXXV) and Economic and Social Council Decision 1979/34. United Nations Economic and Social Council. 31 January 1980. pp. 95–97.
  16. ^ "Rhodesia Plans End to Segregation Laws". The Los Angeles Times. 11 October 1978. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  17. ^ Kandiah, Michael; Onslow, Sue, eds. (2008). "Britain and Rhodesia: The Route to Settlement" (PDF). Institute of Contemporary British History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2016.
  18. ^ Burns, John F. (3 August 1978). "Raid in Mozambique Defended by Black". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  19. ^ a b c Burns, John F. (17 February 1978). "Agreement on Rhodesian Military Reached by Smith and 3 Blacks". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  20. ^ a b c "Rhodesia agrees on army". The Chicago Tribune. 17 February 1978. Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  21. ^ HOUSE, FREEDOM (1 January 1980). "Report of the Freedom House Observer Team: The Common Role Election in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), February 1980". World Affairs. 143 (1): 85–120. JSTOR 20671851.
  22. ^ a b c d Richburg, Keith B. (16 September 1993). "Behold the Land of Bop -- A Figment of Apartheid That Won't Go Away". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  23. ^ Horne, Gerald (1 December 2015). From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469625591.
  24. ^ a b c d e Drogin, Bob (28 November 1993). "Homeland Chief in S. Africa Vows to Keep Regime". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  25. ^ Lyman, Princeton Nathan (1 January 2002). Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa's Transition to Democracy. US Institute of Peace Press. p. 306. ISBN 9781929223367. rowan cronje ciskei.
  26. ^ Cawthra, Gavin (1997). Securing South Africa's Democracy: Defence, Development and Security in Transition. Springer. p. 79. ISBN 9780230377905.
  27. ^ Dixon, Norm. "Mandela: 'A lesson they will never forget'". The Nelson Mandela Foundation.
  28. ^ Sparks, Alliste; Spakrs, Allister (31 January 2012). Tomorrow Is Another Country. Random House. ISBN 9781448135004.
  29. ^ a b Seiler, John (29 September 2007). "Bophuthatswana: End Game". Daily Mail & Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via Internet Archive.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  30. ^ "Conflict in Bophuthatswana (1994)". www.volkstaat.net. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  31. ^ a b "Ciskei Leader Seeks to Keep Some Power : S. Africa: The future of black homelands has become a major issue in deadlocked talks on a new constitution". Los Angeles Times. 9 September 1992. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  32. ^ House of Representatives - Friday, November 19, 1993 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Government Publishing Office. 1993. p. 30450.
  33. ^ a b "3-Sided Talks Due on New South African Charter". The New York Times. 20 December 1993. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  34. ^ "ORAFs - Old Rhodesian Air Force Sods Newsletter: OurStory.com - Capture your stories, save them permanently". www.ourstory.com. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  35. ^ Thomas, Norman E. (1 January 1985). "Church and State in Zimbabwe". Journal of Church and State. 27 (1): 113–133. doi:10.1093/jcs/27.1.113. JSTOR 23916389.
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