HOFMEYR, JAN F. HENDRIK

Jan (Frederik) Hendrik Homeyr (March 20, 1894-December 3, 1948), classicist and politician, was the son of Andries Brink Hofmeyr and Deborah Catherina, née Beyers. His career included membership in the United Party cabinet and the chancellorship of the University of the Witwatersrand.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jan F. Hendrik Homeyr. SOURCE: EA Library

Hofmeyr, who never used his middle names, had a brilliant scholastic career, culminating in the Oxford University double-first (1914 and 1916). He was a young man of principle, and a near genius, but his character had been stunted by an overhasty education, among much older boys, and by his domineering mother. Oxford University brought out all the Afrikaner in him, and left him a convinced South African republican, though pro-Commonwealth.
In 1916 he was appointed professor of classics at the South African School of Mines and Technology (later, in 1922, to become the University of the Witwatersrand). He then became its principal, having accepted the post amid general astonishment in 1919. Aged 25, he was more than equal to the administrative demands of the post, but as regards human relations his immaturity, his unworldliness, and possibly his mother’s influence soon led to a crisis within the university. There was general relief when Prime Minister J.C. Smuts appointed him administrator of the Transvaal (March 1, 1924), a prestigious post which he filled with distinction even after the victory of the National Party of J.B.M. Hertzog that same year.
In 1929 he was elected to parliament, having joined Smuts’ South African Party in the conviction that reconciliation of the two white groups English and Afrikaans-speaking, was essential before any attempted solution of the problem of black-white relations. At that time he regarded total racial segregation as morally defensible but impracticable. He played a major part in the coalition of the National and South African Parties (1934) and was a member of Hertzog’s subsequent United Party cabinet. He opposed the Representation of Natives Bill (1936) and in 1938 he left the government, to which he had become an embarrassment, on a point of principle regarding African representation. A few months later he became chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand.
From 1939, when Smuts took South Africa into the war, until 1948, he was minister of finance and education. He applied his gift for administration with devoted skill, and was able to do much for the economic development of the country as well as for black education, despite the additional heavy burden laid upon him by Smuts’ frequent travels. But his financial policy and liberal views were unpopular, and probably contributed to Smuts defeat in 1948. Certainly his stated belief that South Africa would ultimately have to abandon the “colour bar” dismayed and infuriated many white voters.
He died suddenly a few months after the election, admired by some, hated by others, and sometimes misunderstood by both his Black and White compatriots. He had never married, but was survived by his mother.

A. L. HARINGTON