JANSEN, ERNEST GEORGE
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Ernest George Jansen (August 7. 1881-Novem-ber 11, 1959) was a founder of social Afrikaaner cultural movements and played a leading role in South Africa’s National Party from its beginnings.
PHOTO CAPTION: Ernest George Jansen. SOURCE: EA Library
He was the son of a Natal farmer, Adrien Louis Jansen. After schooling and private study for his law degree, he practised as an attorney in Pietermaritzburg from 1906 onwards, and was soon championing the Afrikaner cultural movement. He founded a debating and literary society in Pietermaritzburg in 1908, which later amalgamated with similar societies established under his guidance elsewhere in Natal.
He was a founding member of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Akademie voor Taal. Letteren en Kunst (1909), and it was largely through his efforts that the Voortrekker Church of the Vow in Pietermaritzburg has been preserved as a museum. When his amalgamated body of debating societies collapsed, he was again instrumental in forming the Saamwerk-Unie van Nataise Debatsvereniginge, which has played a distinguished role in promoting the Afrikaans language.
Towards the end of 1915 Jansen contracted a severe lung infection which left him with a partly disabled right shoulder for life. After a protracted recuperation he accepted the part-time editorship of De Afrikaner, and in 1918 was admitted to the bar. He was also a founder member of the Federaise van Afrikaanse Kultuur-Vereeniging (FAK) and chairman of the Central National Monuments Committee. He was a keen amateur historian and his Die Natalse Boerekongers 1906-1911 is a key source in a study of Het Kongers, the first and only political party in Natal until 1909.
Jansen entered politics as secretary for the Het Kongers in 1909, but refused nomination as candidate for Dundee in the parliamentary elections of 1910. Five years later he contested Umvoti for the newly founded National Party (N.P.) but lost by 143 votes out of 1,507 votes cast. In 1909 he was a member of the N.P. delegation that pleaded unsuccessfully with the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, for the restoration of South African republican independence, and in 1921 he won the first parliamentary seat for the N.P. in Natal (Vryheid) by a majority of 3 votes.
When the N.P. came to power in 1924, Jansen narrowly missed inclusion in the cabinet of Prime Minister J.B.M Hertzog (q.v.). Instead he was offered the Speakership of the House of Assembly, which he accepted. In 1929, he became minister of native affairs and irrigation, but from 1933-43 he again served as Speaker. He lost his Vryheid seat in the 1943 elections, and for the next four years, he first served on the Land Bank and then as editor of the N.P. weekly, New Era.
In 1947, he was elected in a by-election as a member of parliament for Wolmaransstad. When the N.P. came to power in 1948, he again became minister of native affairs, but dilatoriness in his application of apartheid annoyed his colleagues and led to his appointment as governor-general beginning January 1, 1951. He died while serving his second term of office and was buried in the Hero’s Acre in Pretoria. He was respected by all sides as a gentleman of high integrity and moderation.
His wife, Martha Mabel (née Pellissier) played an equally important role in the promotion of Afrikaner culture. They had one son, Ernst Louis, who became an Appeals Court judge.
A.J. VAN WYK
