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The Modernization of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek: F. E. T. Krause, J. C. Smuts, and the Struggle for the Johannesburg Public Prosecutor's Office, 1898–1899

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2011

Charles Van Onselen
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Extract

The southern part of the African continent has, for nearly a hundred and fifty years, been witness to a set of epic struggles to create within it a single unified state and, within that, forms of citizenship that are both identifiably “South African” and more or less collectively owned. The never-ending nature of these twinned tasks has echoes in contemporary mantras about the healthiness of “nation-building,” just as surely as the underlying anemia remains manifest in the name of a place and a people that are, arguably, still more of an expression of geography than a reflection of a collectively lived experience. Perhaps it is significant that it was only a decade after the discovery of diamonds, in the late 1860s, that these struggles first took on recognizably modern political forms. An early attempt to promote federation among the dominant white settlers was, however, thwarted by the still largely separate identities of the two British coastal colonies (the Cape and Natal) and two inland Afrikaner-Dutch or “Boer” republics (the Orange Free State and the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek) that sprawled over southern Africa—enveloping, albeit imperfectly, their distinctive and very different indigenous African, imported Asian, and Colored (people of mixed descent) laboring populations.

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Articles
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Law and History Review , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , Fall 2003 , pp. 483 - 526
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Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2003

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References

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13. For the bare outlines of F. E. T. Krause's extended career, see entries in Potgieter, D. J. et al., eds., Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa (Cape Town: Nasou Limited, 1972), 5: 457Google Scholar; and Roberts, A. A., A South African Legal Bibliography (Pretoria: Wallachs' P. & P. Co., 1942), 263.Google Scholar See also Kahn, Ellison, Law, Life and Laughter: Legal Anecdotes and Portraits from Southern Africa (Cape Town: Juta, 1991), 119–25.Google Scholar There is, however, a contemporaneous and more detailed summary of Krause's earliest professional achievements in an interview recorded on the eve of his thirtieth birthday in Standard & Diggers' News (Johannesburg), 28 April 1898.

14. F. E. T. Krause's private probing of Forster's morals was made public many years later and reported on by Mr. Justice V. G. Hiemstra in an essay aimed at a popular audience. It contains several ambiguities and misleading suggestions but nevertheless remains a valuable source—see “In die Skaduwee van die Dood,” Die Huisgenoot, 14 Aug. 1959. But, long before that, Krause had taken note of Forster's private life for his own purposes—see South African National Archives, Pretoria (hereafter, SANA), W. J. Leyds Archive, 1900–1933, L.A. 261, vol. 1, “A Short account of the events preceding and connected with the Trial of F.E.T. Krause,” (1932), 4–5.

15. Ibid., 4: “My department controlled the Police and Detective Forces….” On the reorganization of the Johannesburg Public Prosecutor's Office, see Standard & Diggers' News, 28 April 1898. On Krause's access to an independent line of pimp-informants, see, for example, SANA, Johannesburg Landdrost's Papers, Public Prosecutor (Incoming Correspondence), vol. 1940, Leon Lemaire to Messrs. Schutte, van den Berg, and Dr. Krause, 5 Oct. 1899.

16. See, for example, van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 123–25.

17. See Standard & Diggers' News, 28 April 1898, and Potgieter et al., eds., Standard Encyclopedia, 5: 457.

18. See Ploeger, J., Afrikana Aantekeninge en Nuus (June 1988), 211–15Google Scholar, and University of Pretoria Library, ZA 929.2, Broeksma, C. “Genealogische overzicht van het geslacht Broeksma” (unpublished typescript, dated 1 Jan. 1985).Google Scholar

19. Cameron, Trewhella, Jan Smuts: An Illustrated Biography (Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1994), 12.Google Scholar

20. See, for example, De Kock, W. J., ed., Suid Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordeboek (Cape Town: Nasionale Boekhandel, 1968), 1: 769–70.Google Scholar

21. Hancock, W. K., Smuts, vol. 1, The Sanguine Years, 1870–1919 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), 41–42.Google Scholar There is a silence about Smuts's masculinity and his sexuality in the only other major study—Ingham, Kenneth, Jan Christian Smuts: The Conscience of a South African (Johannesburg: Palgrave Press, 1986)Google Scholar, although, on p. 17, there is a reference to his liking for “beautiful women.”

22. Ingham, Jan Christian Smuts, 34. For a view on the evolution of Smuts's masculinity, as distinct from his sexuality, see Shula Marks, O.B.E., “White Masculinity: Jan Smuts, Race and the South African War,” Raleigh Lecture presented at the British Academy, London, March 2001.

23. Smuts, J. C., Walt Whitman; A Study in the Evolution of Personality (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), 88.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., 89–90.

25. Hancock, Smuts: Sanguine Years, 48.

26. On class and resistance in the Boer War, see Giliomee, H., “Republicanism, Colonial Patriotism and Imperialism, 1880–1910” (unpublished seminar paper, University of Stellen-bosch, 2001), 33–34.Google Scholar

27. See van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 16.

28. See Kruger, D. W., ed., Suid Afrikaansche Biografiese Woordeboek (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1977), 3: 162.Google Scholar

29. See Cleaver, F. R. M., A Young South African: A Memoir of Ferrar Reginald Mostyn Cleaver, Advocate and Veldcornet (Johannesburg: W. E. Hortor, 1913)Google Scholar [Edited by “His Mother”], vii–xiv.

30. See “Randlords and Rotgut” in van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 47–108.

31. For the wider context of this movement, see Onselen, Charles van, “Jewish Marginality in the Atlantic World: Organised Crime in the Era of the Great Migrations, 1880–1914,” South African Historical Journal 43 (2000): 96–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar There is a brief and rather unsatisfactory account of gambling on the early Rand to be found in de Wet, C., “Die Aard en Omvang van Misdaad aan die Witwatersrand sedert die Ontdekking van Goud to 1896” (M.A. thesis, University of Pretoria, 1958), 70–72.Google Scholar

32. See van Onselen, “Jewish Marginality,” 96–137.

33. Ibid., 128.

34. Ibid., 123–27.

35. Ibid., 130–31.

36. See Kamffer, H. J. G., “Om een scherpe oog in't zeil te houden; Die Geheime Diens in die Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek” (D.Phil., University of Potchefstroom, 1999), 218–29.Google Scholar (I am indebted to Professor J. W. N. Tempelhoff for drawing this important source to my attention.)

37. See Beyers, C. J., ed., Dictionary of South African Biography (Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, 1987), 5: 377–78Google Scholar; see also Cleaver, A Young South African, 19.

38. See De Kock, W. J., Jacob de Villiers Roos, 1869–1940: Lewenskets van'n Veelsydige Afrikaner (Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1958), 37.Google Scholar

39. See van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 66.

40. Ibid, and Cleaver, A Young South African, 27.

41. van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 90 and 137.

42. Ibid., 138.

43. Ibid., 132.

44. See “The Ontucht Law,” Standard & Diggers' News, 24 Nov. 1898; and van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 136.

45. SANA, Pretoria, Z.A.R. Collection, Staatsprokureur, “Geheime Notulen,” vol. 193, File 1197/98, Affidavit by F. E. T. Krause, 5 Nov. 1898.

46. See Cleaver, A Young South African, 20.

47. See especially, “A Pimpsverein,” Standard & Diggers' News, 7 Dec. 1898.

48. Cleaver, A Young South African, 2–3.

49. Ibid., 22

50. See Maritz, S. G., My Lewe en my Strewe (Johannesburg: S. G. Maritz, 1939), 7–8.Google Scholar

51. See, for example, Bristow, E. J., Prostitution and Prejudice: The Jewish Fight against White Slavery, 1870–1939 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982)Google Scholar; and van Onselen, “Jewish Marginality in the Atlantic World,” 102–9.

52. See van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 141–42.

53. SANA, Z.A.R. Collection, Johannesburg Archive, Kriminele Landdrost, Inkomende Stukke, 1899–1900, vol. 1720, J. Silver and S. Stein to the Honourable Mr. Dietzsch, Landdrost, Third Criminal Court, 2 Feb. 1899. See also van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 142–43.

54. Note, for example, the extremely sharp tone in two telegrams from Smuts to Krause dated 11 and 12 January 1899 as reproduced in Hancock, W. K. and Poel, Jean van der, eds., Selections from the Smuts Papers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), 1: 196.Google Scholar

55. See Standard & Diggers' News, 31 Jan. 1899.

56. On the background to the constitutional crisis of 1898, see Chanock, M., The Making of South African Legal Culture, 1902–1936: Fear, Favour and Prejudice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 36–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On Kotzé himself see De Kock, ed., Die Suid Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordeboek, 1: 458–61. The debt with the Corner House is noted in Wheatcroft, Geoffrey, The Randlords (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985), 161.Google Scholar Given the moral and political issues at stake, it is perhaps understandable that there is a remarkable silence about the Silver case in Kotzé, J. G., Biographical Memoirs and Reminiscences, 2 vols. (Cape Town: van Riebeeck Society, 1941).Google Scholar

57. As quoted in Cleaver, A Young South African, 4.

58. As quoted in ibid.

59. See Onselen, Charles van, The Small Matter of a Horse: The Life of “Nongoloza” Mathebula, 1867–1948 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1984).Google Scholar

60. Joseph Silver is the subject of a biography currently being researched and written by the author.

61. On Maritz's later career see, for example, De Kock, ed., Die Suid Afrikaanse Biogmfiese Woordeboek, 1: 535–38.

62. See SANA, Collection A 296, National Council of Women of South Africa, “A short life sketch of Annette Krause” (no author, dated 6 Aug. 1957—but probably by F. E. T. Krause). (I am indebted to Dr. Louise Vincent for drawing this and other items in this collection relating to the Krause family history to my attention.) Toward the end of his life, Krause seems to have changed his mind about the position that Reitz and Smuts took in the debate about the destruction of the mines. See, for example, the version that he offered V. G. Hiemstra in “Die Regter wat oor Politiek Tronk toe is,” Die Huisgenoot, 7 Aug. 1959. On Judge Antonie Kock see Kahn, Law, Life, and Laughter, 111–15.

63. See Potgieter et al., Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa, 6: 457; and Hiemstra, V. G., “In die Skaduwee van die Dood,” Die Huisgenoot, 14 Aug. 1959.Google Scholar

64. Ibid.

65. As quoted in Ploeger, J., “Die Optrede van Cornelis Broeksma (1863–1901),” Africana Aantekinginge en Nuus (June 1988), 215.Google Scholar

66. Ibid., 216. See also, University of Pretoria Library, ZA 929.2, C. Broeksma, “Genealogischche overzicht van het geslacht Broeksma,” 69.

67. See Hiemstra, V. G., “In die Skaduwee van die Dood,” Die Huisgenoot, 14 Aug. 1959.Google Scholar It is worth noting how a portrait of Krause, Howes, R. B., “The Hon. Mr. Justice Krause,” South African Law Journal 40 (1923), 385–88Google Scholar, and an entry in Potgieter, et al., eds., Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa (1972), 5: 457Google Scholar, both choose to simply gloss over these difficulties and ignore the fact that Krause was imprisoned in London. But contrast this with the entry in Roberts, Legal Bibliography, 263. For Isaacs's version of the trial, see By Son, His, Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading (London: Hutchinson, 1943), 80–86.Google Scholar

68. See Transvaal Law Report: Supreme Court 1905, Ex parte Krause, 1905 TS, 221–234. Also Taitz, Jerold, ed., The War Memoirs of Commandant Ludwig Krause, 1899–1900 (Cape Town: van Riebeeck Society, 1996), xx.Google Scholar

69. For Krause's postwar views on prostitution, see Transvaal Legislative Assembly Debates 1908, 1423–25. On the Epstein case and its context, and for the context of Krause's political work in Vrededorp, see van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 156–57, and 311–67, and various indexed references to be found in E. L. P. Stals, Afrikaners in die Goudstad, vol. 1.

70. V. G. Hiemstra, “N Groot Afrikanerheld word Gevonnis,” Die Huisgenoot, 21 Aug. 1959; also Potgieter et al., eds., Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa, 6: 457. His reinstatement at the Middle Temple is recorded in SANA, Dr. W. J. Leyds Archive, L.A. 261, “A Short Account of the events preceding and connected with the trial of F. E. T. Krause,” 25.

71. See Kruger, ed., Suid-Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordeboek, 3: 162–63; and Cleaver, A Young South African, 187–200.

72. See, for example, Ingham, Jan Christian Smuts, 51.

73. See Sunday Times, 23 June 1957; and SANA, Collection A 296, National Council of Women of South Africa, F. E. T. Krause to Mrs. W. Eybers, President, N.C.W.S.A., undated 1955.

74. See van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, 156–58.

75. See Simons and Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa, 90–91 and 301.

76. Ibid.; see also “The Hon. Mr. Justice Krause,” 388. Also, Chanock, The Making of South African Legal Culture, 7–11.

77. Simons and Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa, 301.

78. “The Hon. Mr. Justice Krause,” 388.

79. Beinart, William, Twentieth-Century South Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1994), 62.Google Scholar

80. In this context it is perhaps interesting to note how the older images of Kruger and his administration lingered on in the literature for some twenty years after they were first criticized by Gordon and the Simonses (see notes 3 and 4 above). See, for example, Saunders, C., consultant ed., and Bundy, C. J., historical advisor, Illustrated History of South Africa: The Real Story (Cape Town: Readers Digest Association, 1988), 238Google Scholar, where the views of a contemporary observer, the Californian engineer, W. Hall, are cited if not with approval, then at very least uncritically. Hall believed that Kruger was “corrupt,” “venal” and “inefficient.” There was, argued Hall, “a general inability of the Boers to understand capitalism, industrialisation and progress.”

81. T. R. H. Davenport, South Africa; A Modern History, 95.

82. See, for example, Trapido, Stanley, “Percy FitzPatrick, British Afrikanders, Capitalist Interests and the Origins of the South African War,” paper presented to the Southern African History and Politics Seminar, Oxford, June 2001.Google Scholar

83. See Dubow, “Colonial Nationalism,” 60–70.

84. See, for example, I. R. Phimister, “Empire, Imperialism and the Partition of Africa,” unpublished seminar paper, University of Sheffield, July 2001.