FRED KHUMALO: Verwoerd and his sangoma - A sadistic farce
Fifty years after he was killed, Hendrik Verwoerd's legacy needs revision. Serious revision
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, who was born in the Netherlands on September 8 1901 and killed in Cape Town two days before his 65th birthday, was arguably a man of great intellect and foresight; but also a man, like most geniuses, full of contradictions.But what many have never fully appreciated about the man was his great sense of humour. Missing his birthday by two days is just the touchstone of morbid genius.Couldn't he just hang in there, reach 65 - which is the retirement age of mere mortals - and get his birthday gifts? What? Another safari suit? A long-service clock? A litre of Brylcreem or whatever it is they gave to a white man who, at 65, still boasted a head of full hair? Or maybe he was dying to avoid yet another badly baked birthday melktert from Tant Betsie's oven? Not easy to fathom.What is even more remarkable - and darkly humorous - is that on April 9 1960 Verwoerd had gone to Milner Park, Johannesburg, to mark the jubilee of the Union of South Africa.It was just after ...
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