Swart, Charles Roberts

Swart was born on December 5, 1894, on a farm near Wienburg, then part of the Orange Free State , the third of six children. Parents are Hermanus Bernardus Swart (1866-1949) and Aletta Katarina Robberts (1870-1929). When he was five years old, the Boer War broke out , during which he and his mother and brothers were interned in a concentration camp in Winburg, one of his brothers died in the camp. The father, who fought in the Boer army, was wounded and captured by the British in the battle of Pardeberg , after which he remained in captivity until the end of the war.

At the age of seven, Charles Roberts Swart went to government school in Winburg, at the age of 13 he passed final exams. In 1910 he entered the University College Gray in Bloemfontein, in 1912 he received a bachelor's degree there. In 1914 and 1915 he worked as a teacher in Ficksburg . In 1914 he ended up in the territory covered by the Maritsa uprising , was arrested twice on suspicion of espionage and the desire to join the rebels, but was released and placed under house arrest with permission to teach. From 1915 to 1918 he continued his studies in law, while in 1918 he simultaneously began working as a secretary of the examination committee of the Orange province , and later as a secretary of the Bloemfontein City Hall. From 1919 to 1948, he was an attorney at Bloemfontein and at the same time taught law at Gray University College and land law at Glen Agricultural College.

In 1921 and 1922, he studied journalism at Columbia University in the United States. During his stay in the United States, Swart was in great need of money, because of which he was forced to save on everything and look for all kinds of earnings, among other things, he starred in a silent film. In 1921, at the World Disarmament Congress in Washington, he represented the South African newspaper Die Burger.

Charles Roberts Swart has been a staunch Republican and member of the National Party since 1914. In 1919, he became party secretary general in the Orange Province; in 1920, he ran for the party in provincial elections. In 1923, he won the provincial elections and received a seat from Ledibrand County, which he retained for the next 15 years, losing the election only in 1938. In politics, he adhered to extremely conservative views.

In 1934, the National Party and the South African Party merged, led by Ian Smuts , and in 1935 Swart was elected to the Federal Council of the United National Party. In 1939, after the split of the united party, Swart participated in negotiations on the neutrality of the Union of South Africa in World War II, as well as on the creation of the united National Party. When the party came to power in 1948, Swart took over as Minister of Justice. In this capacity, he bears a significant share of responsibility for the adoption of laws used to suppress the struggle against apartheid .

In 1959, Charles Swart was appointed Governor General of the Union of South Africa. He refused to take the oath of office to Queen Elizabeth at the inauguration ceremony, and also to wear a ceremonial uniform. In the same year, a referendum was held among the white minority of South Africa, as a result of which a decision was made to cease the existence of the British dominion of the Union of South Africa and to establish a republic. In 1961, the constitution of the new Republic of South Africa was adopted, and Swart sent the queen a request to abolish the post of governor general. Instead, the post of president of the republic was introduced, and Parliament elected Charles Robberts Swart as its first president. Although the president was elected for a seven-year term, Swart remained in office for only six years and resigned in 1967. He died in 1982.

• Schirmer, Peter (1981), "Swart, Charles Robberts", Die Beknopte Geiilustreerde Ensiklopedie van Suid-Afrika , Johannesburg: Central News Agency, pp. 182  

• Kruger, Jannie. President CR Swart. - Kaapstad Bloemfontein Johannesburg: Nasionale Boekhandel, 1961 .-- P. 1.