Jimmy Kruger

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James "Jimmy" Thomas Kruger (* December 20, 1917 in Bethlehem , Orange Free State , South African Union ; † May 9, 1987 ) was a South African politician of the National Party (NP), who was Minister of Justice between 1974 and 1979, Police and penal system as well as from 1979 to 1980 President of the Senate (Senaat) was. He was considered a leading advocate of apartheid policy of the government of the Republic of South Africa and was partly responsible for the arrest of the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement Steve Biko on August 18, 1977, who died in police custody on September 12, 1977.

Life

Lawyer and MP

James "Jimmy" Thomas Kruger came from Wales and was from an Afrikaans couple adopted . After attending high school in Ventersdorp , he began his professional career in 1935 as a worker in the Brakpan mine and then in the mining area around Barberton . In addition, he completed a distance learning course at the University of South Africa , which he completed with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He completed another law degree at the Witwatersrand University in 1954 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). In May 1955 he settled as a lawyer in Johannesburg and began his political career a few years later when he was elected member of the Transvaal Province Council for the Nasionale Party (NP) in 1962 . In the elections of March 30, 1966, he was elected for the NP as a member of the Chamber of Deputies (Volksraad van Suid-Afrika) and represented the Prinshof constituency in this until 1979 . In the Vorster II cabinet he acted between 1972 and 1974 as Vice Minister for the Interior, Vice Minister for the Police and as Vice Minister for Social Affairs and Pensions.

Minister of Justice, Police and Law Enforcement and Steve Biko's death

In the subsequent Vorster III cabinet , Jimmy Kruger was appointed Minister of Justice, Police and Prison Services by Prime Minister Balthazar Johannes Vorster on April 29, 1974 , and subsequently held this post in the Botha I cabinet from October 10, 1978 to 1979 . In this capacity he was considered a leading representative of the apartheid policy of the government of the Republic of South Africa. The Susan Kruger Ferry was named after his wife Susan Kruger , the ferry on which apartheid opponents and political prisoners were brought to the prison island Robben Island . He was partly responsible for the arrest of the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement Steve Biko on August 18, 1977, who died in police custody on September 12, 1977. At first, the police claimed that Biko died as a result of a hunger strike . He commented on Biko's death with the words "Dit laat my koud" ('That leaves me cold'), although he later rejected his original reaction and claimed that Biko had written pamphlets in which he wrote about 'Blood and corpses on the streets' called. Due to international pressure, the South African government ordered an investigation into Biko's death. The coroner came to the conclusion that Biko died as a result of brain damage caused by head injuries. However, no person responsible was identified, so there were no charges for the death of Steve Biko. The journalist Donald Woods , the articles on the circumstances of death written and called to the resignation of Jimmy Kruger, increasingly repressive measures experienced by the South African authorities. This was banned on the basis of the law for the suppression of communism (Wet op die Onderdrukking van Kommunisme), like Biko before, at Kruger's direct instruction . When Woods was sent T-shirts prepared with acid, he feared for the health of his family and fled to the UK via Lesotho .

Due to growing criticism from abroad, Jimmy Kruger was dismissed by Prime Minister Pieter Willem Botha in 1979 as Minister of Justice, Police and Prison. Alwyn Schlebusch then became Minister of the Interior and Justice, while Louis Le Grange became Minister of Police and Correctional Services. He then took over on June 4, 1979, as the successor to Marais Viljoen , who was elected President of the Republic of South Africa , initially as President of the Senate (Senaat) and held this office until the Senate was dissolved in 1980. After he was expelled from the National Party, he joined the Konserwatiewe Party (KP), which was not founded on March 20, 1982 by the former NP minister Andries Treurn, in protest against the prepared constitutional reform of the Botha cabinet . However, he no longer took on political offices.

Embodied in films about apartheid

In the Steve Biko based on Donald Woods book . Cry For Freedom The 1987 film Cry For Freedom by Richard Attenborough with Kevin Kline as Donald Woods and Denzel Washington as Steve Biko, John Thaw played the role of Jimmy Kruger. In 2007, the memoirs of Nelson Mandela's prison guard James Gregory based film Goodbye Bafana by Bille August with Dennis Haysbert as Nelson Mandela and Joseph Fiennes as James Gregory Jimmy Kruger was of Norman Anstey shown.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cry for Freedom in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
  2. ↑ Goodbye Bafana in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
personal data
SURNAME Kruger, Jimmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kruger, James Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Bethlehem , Orange Free State , Union of South Africa
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1987