Hendrik Verwoerd (1901 - 1966)
Verwoerd's body is removed from Parliament - the assailant's dagger is held by the second figure from the left
September 6th 1966: Hendrik Verwoerd assassinated
On this day in 1966, the Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, was assassinated. Verwoerd became Prime Minister in 1958, and was responsible for introducing the apartheid laws rigidly separating white colonial settlers and black Africans, with the intention of promoting white Afrikaner supremacy and subjugating blacks. He had begun these policies during his tenure as minister of native affairs in the early 1950s, but it was during Verwoerd’s tenure as Prime Minister that apartheid completely came into being, as a series of laws were passed severely curtailing black liberty. Verwoerd’s government brutally suppressed opposition to these racist policies, forcefully sending Africans to reservations, and arresting anti-apartheid leaders like Nelson Mandela. Verwoerd survived an assassination attempt in 1960, when he was shot twice in the head. The Prime Minister was attacked again in 1966, this time by Mozambique immigrant and parliamentary messenger Demetrio Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town, but this encounter was fatal, and Tsafendas stabbed Verwoerd to death. Tsafendas claimed his actions were not in protest to apartheid, instead insisting he received instructions from a tapeworm in his stomach, eventually being ruled insane and sent to a mental hospital. However, in later interviews, Tsafendas suggested that he was motivated to kill Verwoerd by his resentment of the racism bred by apartheid.
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