When Smuts Goes
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 South African first edition cover | |
| Author | Arthur Keppel-Jones |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Apartheid in South Africa |
| Genre | Dystopian, political fiction |
| Published | 1947 (Shuter & Shooter) |
| Publication place | South Africa |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 270 pp |
| ISBN | 9781013899683 |
| 968 | |
| LC Class | DT779.7 .K46 1947 |
When Smuts Goes is a 1947 dystopian novel by Dr. Arthur Keppel-Jones. The novel is set during a future history of South Africa, following the ascension of Afrikaner nationalists and their increasingly destructive quest for total apartheid. It foreshadowed the fall of Jan Christiaan Smuts and his United Party administration, a rupture in ties with the British Commonwealth, and the declaration of a Second South African Republic.[1] Presiding over the regime which follows is Obadja Bult, a dominion theologian influenced by the ideals of the former Ossewabrandwag. His blunt authoritarian streak gives spark to racial conflict—culminating in foreign intervention and troubled majority rule.
As World War II draws to a close, white politics in the Union of South Africa are glaringly polarised - reflecting the struggle between Daniel Malan's Reunited National Party, whose followers demand a republic, and the United Party of Jan Smuts, who wish to retain their British monarch. Smuts' outstanding electoral victory in 1943 is fast becoming a distant memory; the Nationalists have consolidated by 1948 and go on to win Calvinia, Potchefstroom, Springs, and Caledon.
United Prime Minister Oudstryder dissolves parliament in 1952, the tercentenary of Jan van Riebeeck's landing at the Cape of Good Hope. His Nationalist rivals take advantage of the occasion, organising a massive pageant in Cape Town. Speeches, processions, and gatherings mushroom at famous battlefields. British imperialism is decried as the national enemy. A wave of Afrikaner patriotism rocks South Africa as the polls are opened: Oudstryder and his pro-English colleagues are doomed. The triumphant Nationalists return 83 seats against the United Party's 56, securing a majority in every province but Natal.