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| Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
Jaap Marais Plaque, metal on wood, vintage, wire hanger, 23 cms x 31 cms x 5 cms, condition: very good.
Jacob Albertus Marais was an Afrikaner nationalist thinker, author, politician, Member of Parliament, and leader of the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) from 1977 until his death in 2000.
The Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) was formed in 1969 by Marais, Albert Hertzog (son of former Prime Minister General JBM Hertzog), a cabinet minister, and two other MPs (Louis Stofberg and Willie Marais). The founding of the party occurred three years after the assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd when BJ Vorster authorised the presence of Māori players and spectators during the tour of the New Zealand rugby union team in South Africa in 1970. Marais considered this measure as a concession under pressure that would result in liberalization and the dismantlement of apartheid. Jaap Marais was expelled from the Broederbond shortly after the formation of the HNP was formed, alongside other HNP members or sympathisers.
The HNP found it difficult to make headway against the entrenched and relatively conservative ruling National Party in the 1970s. It succeeded in winning 14% of the vote in the white parliamentary elections of 1981. However, it did not gain any seats due to the electoral system, which was based on a Westminster system of electoral districts rather than a proportional system. Its electoral growth played a role in encouraging the Conservative Party to split from the National Party in 1982 under Andries Treurnicht.
