The History of the Prime Minister Position in South Africa

Nov 25, 2025 0

The position of Prime Minister was established in 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed.

This position was the highest elected political office in the Union. He was appointed by the monarch’s representative in the country-the governor-general until 1961 and the state president after South Africa became a republic in 1961.

In practice, he was the leader of the majority party or coalition in the House of Assembly. With few exceptions, the governor-general/state president was bound by convention to act on the prime minister's advice.

Following a racially-based referendum which excluded black people, South Africa was declared a Republic on 31 May 1961 and under international pressure withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations (which had replaced the British Empire).

With the onset of the Republic, the Office of the Governor-General was abolished and the position of State President was created as the figurative head of state (a situation which remained from until 1983 when under the Tricameral Parliament, the position became substantive and effectively displaced the significance of the Prime Minister.

Prior to the first non-racial elections in April 1994, South Africa adopted an interim constitution which provided for the position of President.

Following constitutional reforms in 1984, the office of State President became an executive post, as in the United States, and the office of Prime Minister of South Africa was abolished.

Key Figures and Events

Louis Botha (1910-1919)

Louis Botha (born September 27, 1862, near Greytown, Natal-died August 27, 1919, Pretoria, South Africa) was a soldier and statesman who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa (1910-19) and a staunch advocate of a policy of reconciliation between Boers and Britons, as well as of limiting the political rights of Black South Africans.

The son of a voortrekker (Boer pioneer settler of the interior), he grew up in the Orange Free State, where he received his only formal education at a German mission school. In 1884 he helped to found the New Republic in the Vryheid district in Zululand (now northern KwaZulu-Natal).

When the New Republic became part of the South African Republic (Transvaal) in 1888, Botha became politically active and held a number of posts before he was elected to the Volksraad (parliament) in 1897.

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Botha rose rapidly in the Boer army to command the southern force besieging Ladysmith. When Piet Joubert, the commandant general of the Transvaal forces, died (March 1900), Botha was named to succeed him.

After the war, Botha returned to politics and in 1904 helped form a new party in the Transvaal, Het Volk (“The People”). When Het Volk won the Transvaal elections of February 1907, Botha became prime minister. Botha and his colleague Jan Smuts, showing political realism, downplayed the fostering of Afrikaner (Boer) interests and stressed conciliation with Britain.

The National Convention of 1910 chose Botha as the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa, which amalgamated the British colonies (the Cape and Natal) and the former Boer republics (Orange Free State and the Transvaal) into one political entity.

Botha was adamantly opposed to granting political rights (either to vote or eligibility as members of parliament) to Black South Africans.

While serving as prime minister, Botha established the South African Party in 1911.

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Botha pursued subtle policies of white (British-Boer) conciliation and greater autonomy for South Africa. The most important measure of his administrations was the Natives’ Land Act of 1913, which segregated land throughout the Union, laid down the basis for a system of “native reserves” for Black South Africans, and began the policy of “influx controls” to reduce their access to cities.

Botha’s policy of white conciliation provoked opposition from extremist Afrikaner groups led by J.B.M. Hertzog, who formed the National Party in early 1914.

Botha’s support for Britain after the start of World War I in 1914 led to further splits among Afrikaners and provoked the rebellion led by Christiaan Rudolf de Wet and C.F. Beyers.

One point of contention was the use of South African troops to attack German interests in Africa, including the mobilization against Germans troops in German South West Africa (now Namibia). The German defeat there in 1915 at the hands of a campaign that was personally led by Botha further exacerbated the situation.

Before his death in 1919, Botha participated in the Paris Peace Conference and advocated leniency for the former enemies.

Key Events during his tenure:

Formation of the Union of South Africa.
World War I.
Conquest of the German South West Africa.
Crushed the Maritz rebellion.
Ratified the Treaty of Versailles.
Attended 1921 Imperial Conference.

Hendrik Verwoerd (1958-1966)

Hendrik Verwoerd talking about apartheid

As minister of native affairs and later as South African leader, Verwoerd oversaw the introduction and application of South Africa’s racist apartheid policies. As prime minister from 1958, he instituted an intricate system of racist laws separating whites, Africans (Blacks), Coloureds and Asians, and resettled Black people in backwater reservations.

These policies provoked anti-apartheid demonstrations by Black people, which were brutally crushed by government forces at Sharpeville and elsewhere. When, in April 1960, Verwoerd miraculously survived being shot twice in the head by an English farmer, he proclaimed that his survival was evidence of God’s approval of his work.

During the next few years, Verwoerd’s government arrested anti-apartheid leaders such as Nelson Mandela and sentenced them to long prison terms on the basis of various convictions.

Verwoerd had succeeded in temporarily crushing anti-apartheid resistance, but he could not prevent a mentally ill parliamentary page from walking up to him in the Houses of Assembly and stabbing him to death on September 6, 1966.

South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was stabbed to death by a messenger during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town. The assailant, Demetrio Tsafendas, was a Mozambique immigrant of mixed racial descent-part Greek and part Swazi.

P.W. Botha (1978-1984)

Pieter Willem Botha (1916 - 2006) served as the last Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and as the first executive State President of South Africa from 1984 until his resignation in 1989.

Born on a small farm in the Orange Free State in 1916, Botha was raised in a conservative Afrikaner family with strong nationalist beliefs. He supported the NPs opposition to South Africa's involvement in World War II on the side of Britain, and actively campaigned for a German victory.

In the 1948 general election, he was elected to the House of Assembly as the MP from George, a position he held for over four decades. His influence within the party grew, and in 1958, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd.

In 1961, Botha became Minister of Community Development and Coloured Affairs, overseeing forced removals, including the controversial clearance of District Six. His role expanded in 1966, when he was appointed Minister of Defence by Prime Minister John Vorster.

During his tenure, he transformed the South African Defense Forces, increasing military spending, implementing conscription, and launching covert operations against anti-apartheid movements. He began South Africa's nuclear weapons program through a doctrine of "strategic deterrence", aiming to deter Soviet-backed forces in Southern Africa from intervening.

Botha was elected leader of the National Party and assumed office as Prime Minister on 4 September 1978, following the resignation of John Vorster. His tenure was marked by a focus on maintaining apartheid through military expansion and internal security measures while introducing limited reforms, such as the Tricameral Parliament in 1983, which granted limited political representation to Coloured and Indian South Africans, but excluded Black South Africans.

In 1984, Botha became South Africa's first executive State President, consolidating executive power and continuing apartheid policies. His presidency faced increasing internal unrest, protests, and international sanctions.

After suffering a stroke in 1989, he resigned as Leader of the National Party and later State President, and was succeeded by F. W. de Klerk.