The Volksparty (VP) (''People's Party'') was a short-lived

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

from 1939 to 1941. JBM Hertzog - SA

In 1934 the coalition government of the National Party under J.B.M. Hertzog and the

South African Party nl, Zuidafrikaanse Partij , leader1_title = Leader (s) , leader1_name = Louis Botha,Jan Smuts, Barry Hertzog , foundation = , dissolution = , merger = Het Volk South African PartyAfrikaner BondOrangia Unie , merged ...

under

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...

merged to form the United Party, which won 111 of the 150 seats in the

South African general election, 1938 General elections were held in South Africa on 18 May 1938 to elect the 150 members of the House of Assembly. The United Party won an absolute majority. Background The National Party (led by the Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog) and the South ...

with Hertzog as prime minister. Dissident National Party members formed the

Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party The Purified National Party ( af, Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party) was a break away from Hertzog's National Party which lasted from 1935 to 1948 In 1935 the main portion of the National Party, led by J. B. M. Hertzog, merged with the South African P ...

under

D.F. Malan Daniël François Malan (; 22 May 1874 – 7 February 1959) was a South African politician who served as the fourth prime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. The National Party implemented the system of apartheid, which enforc ...

. When the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in 1939, Hertzog proposed to his party and parliament that South Africa remain neutral. This was defeated and Hertzog left the government to be replaced by Smuts with South Africa joining the Allies. Following the rupture of the United Party, Hertzog and his supporters negotiated with the

in an attempt to reunify the Afrikaner parties. Initially, the differences between the more moderate Hertzog group and

seemed insurmountable and so the Volksparty was formed with

Ben Schoeman Barend Jacobus "Ben" Schoeman (19 January 1905 – 2 April 1986) was a South African politician of the National Party prominent during the apartheid era. He served as the Minister of Labour from 1948 to 1954, and the Minister of Transport from ...

elected as the chairman of the party on 9 December 1939. After difficult negotiations with Malan, the joint opposition called itself ''Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party of Volksparty'' (Purified National Party or People's Party) nominally under Hertzog's leadership from January 1940. But further disagreements led to another split in 1941 with Hertzog and

Nicolaas Havenga Nicolaas Christiaan Havenga (1 May 1882 – 14 March 1957) was a South African politician who served as Finance Minister in the governments of J. B. M. Hertzog and Daniel François Malan. Relationship with Hertzog Havenga's family suffered ...

forming the

Afrikaner Party The Afrikaner Party (AP) was a South African political party from 1941 to 1951. Origins The Afrikaner Party's roots can be traced back to September 1939, when South Africa declared war on Germany shortly after the start of World War II. The t ...

and Malan the

Herenigde Nasionale Party The Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunited National Party) was a political party in South Africa during the 1940s. It was the product of the reunion of Daniel François Malan's Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party (Purified National Party) and J.B.M. Hert ...

(Re-united National Party). These two parties together won the

South African general election, 1948 General elections were held in South Africa on 26 May 1948. They represented a turning point in the country's history, as despite receiving just under half of the votes cast, the United Party and its leader, incumbent Prime Minister Jan Smuts, ...

, and then merged calling themselves the National Party again.

References

{{Political history of South Africa , state=expanded Afrikaner organizations Defunct political parties in South Africa Political parties established in 1939 1939 establishments in South Africa Political parties disestablished in 1941