CHILD, STUDENT AND YOUNG NATIONALIST: LEARNING TO SERVE

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CHILD, STUDENT AND YOUNG NATIONALIST: LEARNING TO SERVE

Among the many advantages which Erika Theron enjoyed in her long life, was the solid foundationof a happy childhood. Hers was by all accounts a nurturing, affluent family in which she occupieda special place. It was also a family that valued learning both for its own sake and as an instrumentto achieve civic ideals.1
As a result she received abundant encouragement and material support which enabled her to pursue her interests freely. With the backing of the family, with her own intelligence and hard work, she was able to attain a level of education that was unusual for a woman in South Africa at that time. She was not channelled into one of the traditional female professions such as teaching or nursing, but was allowed to enter the newly-emerging field of social science.
This shaped her future public career. Her education and professional training, her family‘s tradition of social responsibility and the influence of inspirational mentors directed her into a lifetime of service and activism. In this chapter, Theron‘s family, social and educational background and her two great mentors will be discussed in order to illuminate those aspects of her character and formative influences which shaped her career…

DISCIPLE OF VERWOERD: SERVING POOR WHITES

Whatever negative feelings Erika Theron may have developed later relating to Verwoerd‘s political career, she had no ambivalence about his role in the development of welfare in South Africa. It may be speculated that because in a much later era she was to find herself unable to defend what was increasingly indefensible with regard to race policy, and yet was unwilling to be openly critical o of the man for whom she had such high regard and affection, she placed an almost excessive emphasis on this area of his life – the crusade for the redemption of the poor whites and the creation of modern welfare structures. It encompassed a period of less than three years, and as will be argued below, at least as far as Verwoerd himself was concerned, the philanthropic, personal and political were never entirely disentangled. For Theron, it was essentially an opportunity to give expression through action, to her will to be of service to her people.
There is no evidence that Theron fully recognised the politicisation of the poor-white problem, or the element of professional self-interest in the lobby to enhance the status of the social sciences, both of which may be discerned in Verwoerd‘s work in the field of welfare. From 1934 she was absorbed in the altruistic and nationalistic fervour of the struggle against poor-whitism leading up to and following on from the 1934 National Conference, which was conducted under the slogan of Nou of Nooit – Now or Never‘.
That this provided an opportunity to criticise the new government‘s supposedly indifferent response to the poor white problem, was probably a bonus rather than a central concern for her. As she says in Sonder Hoed, having Verwoerd as her ‘boss’ during these few years, was a ‘wonderful experience’ for her. It was life-shaping.

CONTENTS:

• Acknowledgements
• Summary
• Abbreviations
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER ONE : CHILD, STUDENT AND YOUNG NATIONALIST: LEARNING TO SERVE
• Childhood and Family
• Student Years
• The Berlin Experience and the Ossewabrandwag
• Doctorate and the Verwoerd Connection
• CHAPTER TWO : DISCIPLE OF VERWOERD: SERVING POOR WHITES
• The Poor White Problem and the Carnegie Commission
• The National Conference, 1934 (The Volkskongres)
• The Campaign for Scientific Welfare
• The Railway Welfare Project
• CHAPTER THREE : ACADEMIC: SERVING HER PROFESSION
• The Lecturer and Her Department
• Interpersonal Relations
• Academic Citizen
• Organisation and Division in the Social Work Profession
• Doyen of Social Work
• CHAPTER FOUR : COUNCILLOR AND MAYOR: SERVING WHITE STELLENBOSCH
• Entry into Local Politics
• Reversing Black Influx
• Group Areas and the Coloured Community
• Cultural and Environmental Conservation
• CHAPTER FIVECHAIRMAN OF THE THERON COMMISSION: SERVING COLOURED COMMUNITIES
• The Coloured Question‘, 1948-1973
• The Theron Commission: The Team and its Task
• The Theron Commission: The Final Report
• CHAPTER SIX : AFRIKANER DISSIDENT: SERVING THE CAUSE OF REFORM
• Campaigning for Change
• Last Years
• CONCLUSION
• SOURCES

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