D.F. Malan and the election of 1948

Daniel François Malan was born on 22 May 1874 on the farm Allesverloren, on the southern side of Riebeek West. Jan Smuts had been born a few kilometres away four years earlier.

In the general election of 1948, Malan's National Party defeated Smuts's United Party. For a while Riebeek West became a political hotbed, because the leaders of both main parties came from the same village.

Malan served as prime minister until 1954. His government introduced the first apartheid laws, with consequences that reached into this valley too, including the forced removal of the Oukloof community from Riebeek Kasteel in the 1960s.

The Riebeek Valley Museum tells part of this story. Knowing it makes a visit to the valley richer and more honest.