The Commandant General - Johannes Meintjes

The Commandant General - The Life and Times of Petrus Jacobus Joubert of the South African Republic 1831-1900 - Johannes Meintjes - Tafelberg - Hardcover with dustcover on good condition - Internally: one stamp, rest clean and tightly bound.

Perhaps because of the enigma of his character as much as the fact that he was overshadowed by his rival President Kruger, there had been little or no serious attempt to assess Commandant-General Petrus Jacobus Joubert prior to this book by one of the best-known biographers in SA, Johannes Meintjes.

Up to the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War Joubert, the hero of Majuba, was second in importance only to Pres Kruger on the Transvaal scene and possibly the most important sphere of his activities came in his opposition to Kruger's Uitlander policies.

As a Commandant-General, Joubert was at heart a pacifist and this was perhaps the reason he never rose to the prominence of a Louis Botha - as Botha said of him "he was incapable of giving a decisive lead when the occasion arose". As a General his skill lay in defence, and in the supreme test of the Anglo Boer War he failed because of his overcautious approach. But shortly before his death he apparently went through a transformation because at the conference of Boer leaders in Kroonstad he urged the Boers to fight in small mobile units and to keep on attacking.
Meintjes gives us a fascinating character study of a man whose complexity was the source of his potential greatness as well of his weaknesses.

220 pages, well indexed with a good bibliography.