Content - From Malan tot Mbeki

Early yearsattending services. I had two of my trusted farm workers with meand of course I wanted them to attend the wedding. The head of thechurch refused and I kicked up such a fuss that in the end they hadan emergency meeting of the Church Council. They finally relented,and allowed my Coloured friends to attend the service. We travelledto Port Elizabeth and boarded the Windsor Castle, which took us toDurban for our honeymoon, in a luxury cabin for which I paid R25,00per night.We started our married life in the old house on Neethlingshof,after my mother had moved to another house on the farm. We willhave been married for 46 years this year, and looking back on mycareer, I now realise the huge impact Trienie has had on it, in everypossible way. We have four sons of whom we are very proud, andfive grandchildren.As I’ve said before, I always had this burning ambition to serve in apolitical position, either in the Provincial Council or in Parliament. In1973 I got the opportunity I was looking for. The NationalDelimitation Court altered the borders of the constituencies, andadded the farming areas of Stellenbosch to the False Bayconstituency. The Member of Parliament was the formidable CabinetMember, Chris Heunis. As there was a vacancy in the ProvincialCouncil, I decided to throw my hat into the ring for the NPNomination. The election was due to take place in the first part of1974.I soon discovered that there was another candidate in the field,Dr Kerneels Roelofse, a well-known businessman from SomersetWest. He was a lot older than I, far better qualified, and also verywell known in the constituency. Somerset West had been a part ofFalse Bay for a long time, whereas I was in fact a “Johnny-comelately”in that constituency. I knew I was facing almost impossibleodds, but threw myself wholeheartedly into the canvassing process. Ithought I was doing quite well, but in late December disaster struck.I developed acute backache, which forced me to becomebedridden for a time. In desperation I went to a well-known specialistin Bellville, who operated on me and removed a small cartilage,which had become lodged between two vertebrae. Within a few days9