PK Le Roux

PK Le Roux (1960)

Pieter Mattheus Kruger Le Roux (born November 11, 1904 in Doornkraal, De Rust , Oudtshoorn , Cape Colony ; † June 23, 1985 in Wilderness , Cape Province ) was a South African politician of the National Party (NP) who was, among other things, minister of various departments several times .

Life

Pieter Kruger Mattheus Le Roux completed after visiting the Outeniqua High School in George studying agronomy at the University of Stellenbosch , which he in 1923 with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) graduated. He then worked as a farmer and was involved in the establishment of agricultural cooperatives in partially as a semi-desert landscape marked Karoo . In a by-election on April 23, 1942, he applied for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies (Volksraad van Suid-Afrika) in the constituency of Riversdale without success . In the election of July 7, 1943, he ran in the constituency of Bredasdorp , but with 3,280 votes (42.9 percent) was clearly defeated by the United Party candidate and Minister for Native Affairs , Pieter Voltelyn Graham van der Byl , to 4,326 votes (56, 5 percent). In the election of May 26, 1948 , he was elected for the first time for the National Party (NP) in the constituency of Victoria West as a member of the Chamber of Deputies. While he was elected in his first election with a difference of only 24 votes to his opponent, he was re-elected on April 15, 1953 in the Prieska constituency and on April 16, 1958 in the Oudtshoorn constituency, each with clear absolute majorities. In the elections of October 8, 1961, March 30, 1966 and April 22, 1970, he moved in the constituency of Oudtshoorn each time as a member of the Chamber of Deputies without opposing candidates.

In May 1958, Prime Minister Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom appointed Le Roux to succeed the sick Stephanus Petrus le Roux as Minister of Agriculture in the Strijdom Cabinet. In the government that was taken over by Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd on September 2, 1958 after the death of Strijdom on August 24, 1958 , he became Minister of Water and Agricultural Technical Services. He held this ministerial office from October 8, 1961 to March 30, 1966 in the Verwoerd I cabinet . In the subsequently formed Verwoerd II cabinet he became Minister of the Interior on April 1, 1966, and took over this function in the Vorster I cabinet formed by Prime Minister Balthazar Johannes Vorster on September 13, 1966 after the assassination of Prime Minister Verwoerd . In the course of a cabinet reshuffle, he was replaced by Lourens Muller in 1968 . In the elections of April 24, 1974, he did not run again for a parliamentary mandate and left the Chamber of Deputies. The PK Le Roux Dam , today's Vanderkloof dam, was named in his honor .

Web links

• Entry in rulers.org
• South Africa: Key Ministries