United Party (South Africa)
The United National South African Party ( Afrikaans Verenigde Suid-Afrikaanse Nasionale Party ) was the governing party of South Africa from 1934 to 1948. It emerged on December 5, 1934 from the National Party (NP) and the South African Party . Colloquially it was called United Party (Verenigde Party) . At first it was supported by the British, Boers and Coloreds and achieved large majorities in parliamentary elections.
Its chairman was James Barry Munnick Hertzog until September 4, 1939 . Due to his neutral attitude towards the Second World War , he lost the party chairmanship and the office of Prime Minister to Jan Smuts . He ruled South Africa during the war and the immediate post-war years.
Smuts lost with the UP the election of 1948 to the then Herenigde Nasionale Party, from 1951 again to NP. From 1950 to 1956 Jacobus Gideon Nel Strauss held the party chairmanship. This was followed in 1956 by Sir David Pieter De Villiers Graaff . In 1959 the Progressive Party split off. In 1977 the UP was renamed the New Republic Party (Nuwe Republiek Party) . Many members left the party. Some then joined the Progressive Federal Party (Progressiewe Federale Party) , which spoke out against apartheid . Others switched to the ruling NP. After the 1977 general election, the number of MPs for the New Republic Party dropped from 41 to 10.
Although the UP spoke out against apartheid as a system, it stuck to the rule of the white minority.
