Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
How news of HF Verwoerd’s assassination was received
THE first – Stop Press – report from a parliament in turmoil on September 6, 1966 was a crisp narrative that muddled past and present tenses, an indication of the uncertainty of how things stood.
“The Prime Minister Dr HF Verwoerd,” it began, “was stabbed in the left side of his chest minutes before the Assembly met today.” Switching tense, it went on: “It is not yet known how seriously he is injured. He is slumped in his front bench, blood streaming from the wound. Members of Parliament who are doctors are attending him.”
Back to the past tense: “The incident occurred while the bells for the resumption of today’s session were ringing. Soon after the prime minister had taken his seat a man walked up to him with a knife. The prime minister looked up as if he expected the man was going to talk to him.
“The man then suddenly plunged the knife into the prime minister’s neck.”
The “man” was, as readers soon learnt, deranged parliamentary messenger Dimitri Tsafendas, and, even as they read the first account of the staggering attack in the legislature, the prime minister was dead.
A selection from the reports a day later give some idea of the how the event was perceived by some. September 7, 1966 Betty’s Bay has lost a friend Dr Verwoerd is being mourned throughout South Africa, but his death has caused a special grief in Betty’s Bay.
To the residents of this little resort near Cape Hangklip, Dr Verwoerd was not just the prime minister – he was their prime minister. It was here that he decided to build a holiday home, and it was here that he would stroll on the long, wind-swept beaches and go fishing, forgetting for a short while the pressing cares of his office. Verwoerd film for city A film on the life of Dr Verwoerd will start showing in four city cinemas and one drive-in theatre from tomorrow. Film technicians of 20th Century-Fox in Johannesburg worked through last night to produce the film Dr Verwoerd – a Nation’s Tribute. It will be a short pictorial resume of the Prime Minister’s life. Police dance cancelled Organisers of the Woodstock Police Sports Club Dance to be held on Friday, September 9, have announced that the dance has been cancelled, owing to the death of the Prime Minister (Dr HF Verwoerd). The dance has been cancelled indefinitely. Ticket-holders for the dance can apply to the police station where they obtained their tickets for the refund of money. Pretoria students offer to dig grave
Students of the University of Pretoria’s Sonop hostel have volunteered to dig the grave for Dr Verwoerd in Pretoria. Their request of permission was made to the Administrator of the Transvaal Mr SGJ van Niekerk who has forwarded it to the prime minister’s office.
The students made their offer “as a tribute to our late prime minister and as a special mark of respect to his two sons who are resident at our hostel”.
The two sons of Dr Verwoerd, Christan and Wynand, left the hostel for Cape Town last night. Shares soon moved up Only the early birds picked up bargains on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange today. Although gold shares opened sharply lower today, following the assassination of the prime minister yesterday, prices quickly moved higher following local and overseas demand.
By midday most shares were well on the way to recovering most of their overnight losses. Condolence cable The Croatian community in South Africa has sent a cable of condolences to Mrs Betsie Verwoerd, and a similar cable to the Acting Prime Minister Dr Donges.