Mr Jan Hendrick Hofmeyr (Part 2)

Jan Hofmeyr as the Administrator of the Transvaal (1924–1929)

He was baptised at Oxford in his student days and later, some time after his return to South Africa, became a Personal Member of the Baptist Union. He frequently worshipped at the Central Church in Pretoria and at the Wale Street Church at Cape Town, and was always interested in the progress of our work.

He would respond readily to special invitations if his engagements permitted and from the chair at Baptist Union or Missionary meetings more than once gladly acknowledged his debt to his Baptist upbringing. One of his last public acts was the laying of the foundation stone of the new Church building at Pretoria.

By many of his contemporaries, and some of his colleagues, Mr Hofmeyr was not understood. Because he did not drink, or gamble, or smoke, or swear, or tell doubtful stories, he was thought unsociable and priggish. It was not really so. At Student Christian Association Camps and on the cricket field, where his keenness was greater than his skill, Hofmeyr the Administrator or Cabinet Minister became Hofmeyr the boy, to quote Alan Paton again; beneath a reserve for which explanations might be found in his precocity as a lad and his responsibilities as a College Principal and Political leader there was a warm humaneness and genuine friendliness.

As President of the Y.M.C.A, in South Africa and of the National Sunday School Association and by his regular attendance at one or other of the churches wherever he was, Mr Hofmeyr definitely allied himself with the Christian cause. In public utterance and in private life he gave consistent testimony to the reality of his faith.

To fallible human judgement it seemed a tragedy that a man of such character and gifts should be removed from public life at the height of his powers, and when his influence was so much needed, but we believe that when the call came, at his home in Pretoria on 3 December 1948, it was in the perfect will and wisdom of God, to whom be all the praise for a life the value of which will be realised more clearly as it is seen against the background of the times in which it was lived.

Written by: Syd Hudson-Reed

Mr Jan Hendrick Hofmeyr (Part 1)

Jan Hofmeyr at the age of thirteen. This picture was taken in his first year at the University of Cape Town.

Of Mr. J.H. Hofmeyr as scholar and statesman much has been written (see his wiki entry here). Regarding his scholarship, to quote of Alan Paton, "His intellectual equipment was supernormal." His school career was quite extraordinary. He matriculated at the age of twelve, obtained his B.A. degree at fifteen and his M.A. degree two years later; while at twenty-five in 1919, he was Principal of the School of Mines at Johannesburg, afterwards Witwatersrand University. His career in the sphere of statesmanship began when he was appointed Administrator of the Transvaal at the age of twenty-nine, and reached its peak when he was Minister of Finance and Acting Premier.

The qualities that marked his career as an educationalist were equally evident in his career as a statesman. We would mention three – industry, courage and integrity. With all his brilliant gifts he was a worker of amazing industry; at one time he held no less than six ministerial portfolios. Of his moral courage there could be no question; he took the line he believed to be right. Out of his moral courage grew his integrity; even those who doubted his judgement could never doubt his honesty. J.H. Hofmeyr was a Christian and, with a consistency all too rare in public life, he carried his christian profession into his political practice.

Jan Hendrick Hofmeyr was born in Cape Town where his mother was a member of the Wale Street Baptist Church during the ministry of the Rev Ernest Baker. There are still those in the church who speak affectionately of Hennie Hofmeyr as a Sunday School boy who regularly carried off first prizes in the Scripture examinations and was for some years a member of Mr. William Janisch’s Bible Class. It was with characteristic courtesy and gratitude that, throughout the years, Mr. Hofmeyr remembered every Christmastide to write to the one who led him to a fuller knowledge of the written word and the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Written by: Syd Hudson-Reed