Content - From Malan tot Mbeki

Early yearsactually won that branch’s support. It immediately meant that the 15votes I had taken for granted were lost. I soon discovered that themain instigator behind Jimmy’s candidature was Chris Heunis. Chrisnever wanted a colleague who was going to stand up to him, butrather somebody who would support him regardless of what heproposed.The voting started in the branches and things were going well,although I was worried as, in both the Bottelary branch and theStellenbosch branch, I picked up a distinct feeling of “cooling off”.We met for the nomination meeting and I was fairly confident. Iwas shocked, however, when the result came out, and I had lost by 34votes to 33! Nonetheless, I made a gracious concession speech,pledging my full support to Jimmy. Trienie and I then went home tolick our wounds. She was also bitterly disappointed, as we had nevercontemplated the possibility of losing. Looking back now, it was ablessing. Over the years I became more and more worried anddisenchanted about the policies of the National Party, although atthat stage I still believed that it was better to remain within the NP,and to try and change it from the inside. However things becamesteadily worse in South Africa, and I have often wondered how Iwould have handled my reservations whilst a representative of theParty.Another issue that might have worked against me was the“Broederbond” factor. It should be clearly stated that I was never amember of the Broederbond. The name “Jan Momberg” whichappears in Hennie Serfontein’s Broederbond book is that of mycousin “Stil Jan” Momberg. Stil Jan was as close as a brother to me,but we had a different political outlook at times.Early in the 1960s, I became a member of the “Rapportryers”; thiswas the first step to becoming a member of “Die Broederbond”. TheRapportryers had a rule that if you missed three meetings in a rowwithout a valid excuse, you were automatically suspended. Iattended a few meetings, but then decided to stay away for threeconsecutive meetings, as I would not have fitted into that kind oforganisation.My biggest issue with Die Broederbond was that a group ofAfrikaners decided that some Afrikaners were “better than others”.13