Hendrik Jacobus Coetsee

Hendrik Jacobus Coetsee (born  April 19, 1931 in Ladybrand , †  July 29, 2000 in Bloemfontein ), also known under the name Kobie Coetsee , was a South African politician of the National Party . He worked from 1980 to 1994 as Minister of Justice under Presidents Pieter Willem Botha and Frederik Willem de Klerk and was thus responsible, among other things, for the police and the penal system in the final phase of the apartheid era . After the first free and general elections in the history of South Africa, he took over the office of President of the Senate , the second chamber of the South African parliament, from 1994 to 1997 .

Life

Kobie Coetsee was born in Ladybrand in 1931 as the only child of his parents, both of whom were active at the local level for the National Party . His two grandfathers had been involved as commanders in the Second Boer War , so the freedom and independence of the Boers played an important role in Coetsee's political views. He studied law and Latin studies at the Universiteit van die Oranje-Vrystaat until 1954 and was subsequently admitted to the bar . In 1968 he won the parliamentary seat that had become vacant after the election of Jacobus Johannes Fouché as president . Ten years later, in October 1978, then Prime Minister Pieter Willem Botha appointed him Deputy Minister for Defense and National Security. In October 1980 he then took over the office of Minister of Justice , which he kept from 1989 under Botha's successor Frederik Willem de Klerk .

In 1985 he became chairman of the Provincial Association of the National Party in the Free State Province . In the same year there were secret talks between Kobie Coetsee and the imprisoned opponent of apartheid Nelson Mandela , four years later he organized a meeting between Mandela and President Botha. After the election of Frederik Willem de Klerk as president in August 1989, he was also significantly involved in the negotiations between his government and the African National Congress , which after Mandela's release in February 1990 for the gradual repeal of the apartheid legislation and in 1994 for the first free and general elections in the history of South Africa. From April 1993 to May 1994, in addition to the office of Justice Minister, he also temporarily took on the defense department. After the 1994 elections, he became President of the Senate , the then Provincial Representation and Second Chamber of the South African Parliament. He held this office until 1997.

Kobie Coetsee was married from 1956 and has two sons and three daughters. He died of a heart attack in Bloemfontein in 2000 .

literature

• Year in Review 2000: Coetsee, Hendrik Jacobus. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite. Encyclopædia Britannica, Chicago 2008.

Web links

• South African History Online: Hendrik Jacobus (Kobie) Coetsee - a biography Biographie (English, with picture)
• Dan van der Vat: Kobie Coetsee . In: The Guardian . Obituary dated August 5, 2000