Jan de Wet

Johannes Marthinus de Wet was born on November 10th, 1927, in Rouxville, South Africa. From 1934 to 1940 he attended primary school in Outjo in Northern Namibia, and from 1941 to 1944, he went to Ficksburg High School in South Africa. From 1944 to 1947, he worked on farms in the Outjo district in Namibia, before later attending Stellenbosch University in South Africa for three years, studying for a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Science. After graduating he moved back to Outjo as a farmer. ==Politics==

Jan De Wet entered politics as a member of the South African Parliament, from 1964 to 1970. At this time Namibia was being governed as ‘South West Africa’, and the government was seeking to legitimise and strengthen its mandate in the region. In this position he administered and maintained the Bantustan systems in Namibia, and was thus central to the enforcement of Apartheid.The contract labour system was administered jointly by the government and the South West African Native Labour Association (SWANLA). De Wet was a member of the Transitional Government of National Unity from 1985 until independence in 1989. He chaired that body from August 1987 until January 1988. {{cite web In Namibian public memory, his time in the Namibian government after 1985 has been considered more important than his actions during Apartheid. De Wet is frequently praised for his role in reconciliation and the stabilisation of the new Namibian state. Importantly, during his time in government between 1964 and 1978, there was a major shift in international perspectives on Namibian politics. In 1966 the United Nations general assembly revoked the South African mandate in Namibia, and advised the government to facilitate Namibian independence. In 1971 in an advisory opinion in the International Court of Justice, South African presence in Namibia was affirmed as a breach of international law. Alongside these rulings in 1973 the UN general assembly created the Apartheid Convention, and asserted the concept of the crime of apartheid in international law. De Wets opinions on this matter are notably vague. While he didn’t speak on this during his time in the Apartheid government, in 2007 he affirmed that he felt his actions were correct, and justifiable. He asserted that he was a South African citizen and enacted the policy of the South African government. == Personal Life ==

Jan married his wife Lesinda in 1952. They spent much of this time with the government in Walvis Bay and parts of southern Namibia, and at points moved to South Africa proper. This has had complicated economic and social impacts. Throughout much of his life De Wet self-identified as a South African patriot, and during the Apartheid era lived in ‘South West Africa’ as a white South African citizen under the South African mandate in Namibia. After Namibian independence, he became a Namibian citizen and self-identified as a Namibian patriot. He was an important supporter of the new constitution of Namibia, and his adoption of the label ‘White Namibian’ reflected this. ==Land Reform==

Later in his life, De Wet was crucial in political discourses around land reform. He was a very important figure in agricultural circles in Leonardville and had a significant pacifying influence on local communities, acting as a mediator. == Death ==

In late 2010 De Wet was diagnosed with cancer. In early 2011 he was moved to Windhoek, where he died on Sunday the 13th of February 2011. He was 83 years old. He was survived by his wife Lesinda, 4 daughters and 13 grandchildren. == See also ==