The Purified National Party (, GNP) was an Afrikaner nationalist political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1934 as a splinter group opposed to the merging of the National Party (NP) into the United Party (UP) led by future prime minister D. F. Malan, then merged with a UP faction led by former prime minister J. B. M. Hertzog to form the Reunited National Party (, HNP) in 1940.
After the NP and South African Party (SAP) signed agreements to form the UP in late June, Malan established the GNP from NP dissident elements. 19 National MPs switched parties during July and August, making the party the official opposition to the UP. At the 1938 general electionthe only federal election the GNP contestedthe party received 31.3% of the popular vote and gained 8 seats, but remained in distant opposition to a UP supermajority. After Hertzog resigned as prime minister and his UP faction split in opposition to South Africa's support for the Allies during World War II, the GNP and Hertzog's faction formed the HNP. While Hertzog was initially dominant and led the new party in opposition, he was soon overtaken by Malan's faction; Malan was elected prime minister in 1948 and the HNP retook the National Party name in 1951.
Generally described as right-wing, the GNP sought to reduce Afrikaner confidence in the UP merger, opposing efforts to promote a common identity between them and British South Africans. It also criticised South Africa's status as a British dominion, openly supporting republicanism by 1936 and calling for the adoption of "" (which became co-official with "God Save the King" in 1938) as the sole national anthem. The party supported antisemitism in South Africa and racial segregation, criticising the UP for failing to ban miscegenation and attempting to portray its government as racially liberal. In foreign policy, the GNP supported neutrality and expressed concern that the UP could insert South Africa into a European war.
History
NP–SAP merger and founding (1933–1934)
In the lead-up to the 1933 general election and amid the Great Depression in South Africa, NP prime minister Hertzog formed a broad coalition with the SAP led by former and future prime minister Jan Smuts on 31 March. After the coalition's success in depression recovery, a public movement to formally merge the NP and SAP emerged, while some local party chapters began to work as a single entity, particularly in the Orange Free State and Transvaal.
While Hertzog officially began supporting uniting the parties in August 1933believing he had convinced both Smuts's faction and Malan's hardline Afrikaner nationalist faction of its benefitsthe Cape Province NP branch struck down a resolution supporting a merger 142–38 on 5 October and Malan stated that the Cape branch was prepared to operate independently if a merger went through. Malan negotiated with Hertzog at Groote Schuur, an official residence of the prime minister, on 2 and 4 February 1934: Hertzog met Malan's demands by promising to advise the monarch to appoint an Afrikaner governor-general if the office became vacant during his premiership, promising to abolish criminal appeals to the Privy Council once pending appeals were resolved, and allowing members of the new party be allowed to propagandise for republicanism, which led Malan to declare that the Cape branch supported the merger in theory.
On 16 February, a letter exchange between Cape NP secretary Frans Erasmus and Hertzog detailing several concessions made was published to the press, which Hertzog and Malan further used to promote unity. Alongside the previous concessions made to Malan, Hertzog stated that he supported South Africa's right to abandon its status as a British dominion and to remain neutral in British wars, although he refused to include such a statement in the party manifesto, stating that it "would confuse rather than clarify and might suggest doubts as to the Union's true constitutional position". These concessions agitated the SAPwhich the NP was still in negotiations withand created a public perception that the letter was a manifesto for a merged party.
Smuts rejected Hertzog's views on the monarchy in an 18 February letter, stating that the party must support the status quo, although he conceded that an alliance between Afrikaner nationalists and British South Africans would be impossible if a united position was required on the Crown. Hertzog also replied that he agreed with Smuts's reply, which angered Malan's faction, who believed the reply showed Hertzog's multiplicity. Malan stated on 22 February that "the events of the last few days have definitely killed fusion", and his faction became uncompromising in its opposition, highlighting irreconcilable disagreements between the SAP and Malan's faction.
By 23 April, Hertzog and the SAP had agreed on draft terms of a merger, which included the principles the initial coalition was built on alongside an agreement for a potential separate legislature representing native Africans. On the Crown, the agreement provided for the status quo but stated support for a "South Africa first" policy, not entering obligations which would hurt the country. The NP Federal Council and SAP Union Head Committee separately considered the agreement on 30 June; while the SAP easily agreed, overcoming opposition from a faction led by Charles Stallard, the NP debate lasted into the morning of 31 June due to opposition from Malan's faction. After the NP ultimately decided in favour of the merger 13–7, Malan read a statement to the Federal Council:
Malan's faction wrote a statement condemning the merger, criticising its status quo position on the Crown, economic views, and calling for South African neutrality and a "people's party" not controlled by a political machine. Malan reorganised the remaining dissident elements of the NP into the GNP, and 19 of the 75 National MPs (14 from the Cape Province, four from the Orange Free State, and one from the Transvaal) switched to the GNP from July to August 1934 alongside several provincial council members; the Federal Council met in Bloemfontein to establish a manifesto on 5 July. Stallard's SAP faction also broke away, forming the Dominion Party with 3 other MPs in August. The SAP and NP officially merged into the UP on 5 December, while the GNP formally became the official opposition when the House of Assembly convened in January 1935.
1935–1938
The new party's strongest base was in the Cape Province, where Malan salvaged large amounts of NP dissident elements, partially due to Erasmus's loyalty to the provincial organisation over the federal party. The party was backed by Cape Town newspaper (which Malan had previously been editor-in-chief for) and its ('The National Press') publishing house. While the Orange Free Statewhich Hertzog came frommostly supported the merger, the GNP held a stronger position due to a competent, albeit young, minority who opposed the merger. The party was supported by (a affiliate) and popular MP , although the UP remained dominant in the province.
In the Natal and Transvaal provinces, the GNP was decimated as almost all of the local NP supported the merger; American academic Newell Stultz remarked that "for many years the GNP existed in Natal in name only" and "the position in the Transvaal seemed initially as bad". Nationally the party was supported by many Afrikaner cultural and intellectual groups who believed the goals of the Afrikaner movement had not been achieved under Hertzog, as well as by Afrikaner farmers and workers.
Attempting to grow a presence in the Transvaal beginning in 1936, the GNP established , a daily newspaper in Johannesburg, in October 1937. The Transvaal party was heavily financed by future prime minister J. G. Strijdom, the Transvaal's only GNP MP, who also emerged as a de facto leader of the provincial party despite being a mostly unknown backbencher before the UP merger. Despite Strijdom's contributions the party remained limited on money in the province, being unable to pay full-time employees.
Ahead of the 1938 general election on May 18, the only federal election the GNP would contest, the GNP were predicted to remain in opposition, citing weak performances at previous provincial elections. On election day, the party received 259,543 (31.31%) of the popular vote and gained 8 seats for a total of 27 out of 150, but remained in distant opposition to a UP which won 111 seats, having failed to break through outside of rural and poorer areas of the Cape and Orange Free State. The GNP performed particularly poorly in the Transvaal, where it only received 75,000 votes to the UP's 185,000 and attempts to attract urban working men failed, in some cases resulting in groups becoming closer with the UP.
The GNP established a youth wing, the ('National Youth League'), in 1938. The next year, a party flag was established following a 1935 Orange Free State GNP meeting, seeking to strengthen the party's identity and promote unity among its members. Depicting a blue gunpowder horn with a white border against an orange background, the flag was used by the GNP and its successors until 1993. After the flag's establishment, the party's colourswhich were previously only orangewere updated to orange, white, and blue, the South African national colours.
Ties with the Afrikaner Broederbond
The ('Afrikaner Brotherhood') was a secret society of Afrikaners with around 2,500 members who sought to promote their interests and ensure Afrikaner dominance in South Africa. They exercised influence through controlling Afrikaner-dominated institutions, mainly churches and schools, and creating new institutions where no explicitly Afrikaner ones had previously existed. While secretary I.M. Lombard denied that the organisation was involved in party politics, it was apparent that the was linked to the GNP and later the HNP through their common goals. Erasmus, Malan, Strijdom, and several other prominent GNP members were likely members of the Broederbond; The Rand Daily Mail alleged that 60 of the 92 GNP candidates in the 1938 general election were also members. Despite their ties the and GNP did not exert control over each other, as they were considered separate like-minded organisations in different areas.
Hertzog split and merge into the HNP (1939–1940)
Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, the United Kingdom and France declared war against Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939, beginning World War II. This reignited the issue of neutrality in British wars, and a tense cabinet meeting occurred at Groote Schuur the day before the declarations of war, where Hertzog and five other ministers supported continued neutrality but seven, including Smuts, supported immediate entry into the war against Germany. This was a break from the previous position of Smuts, who a year earlier had endorsed a statement by Hertzog supporting neutrality. While some Hertzog supporters criticised Smuts for failing to notify him of a position change, biographer Keith Hancock responded that Smuts had made at least 20 publicised speeches on his changing position between the statement and the war.
The House of Assembly voted on a resolution compelling the government to sever Nazi ties and abandon neutrality on 4 September; after it passed 80–67 and governor-general Patrick Duncan refused Hertzog's request to hold a snap election, the prime minister resigned on 5 September and Smuts began a second non-consecutive term to replace him the next day. The UP now led by Smuts formed a coalition with the Dominion and Labour parties. While four MPs who had been National members before the merger supported Smuts's ascension to the premiership and his cabinet contained six Afrikaners, most Afrikaners abandoned the UP after the split, triggering a major political realignment which brought South Africa closer to its pre-merger party system.