Oswald Pirow

Oswald Pirow, QC (14 August 1890 – 11 October 1959) was a South African lawyer and far-right politician who held office as minister of justice, and later minister of defence for the National and United Party, respectively. Pirow eventually left the UP upon the Second World War and joined Daniel Malan's reunited National Party, but eventually broke when Pirow founded the New Order of South Africa, a marginal fascist group that disbanded before the end of the war. A celebrated jurist, including by future President Nelson Mandela, he served the NP government as a prosecutor in the Treason Trial until his death.

Born in Aberdeen, Cape Colony (now Eastern Cape South Africa), Pirow was the son of German immigrants - he was the elder son of Carl Ferdinand Pirow, a doctor of medicine. He was educated at Potchefstroom, Transvaal, before continuing his education in Germany and England. He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 15 October 1910 and was Called to the Bar on 4 June 1913. He then practised law in Pretoria, becoming a King's Counsel in 1925. He married Else Piel in 1919, the marriage producing two sons and two daughters. During this time Pirow was a keen sportsman and was a champion at the javelin throw, whilst also excelling at boxing, wrestling, fencing, sprinting, swimming, horsemanship and big game hunting.

Pirow came to prominence in the early 1920s following a strike by white gold miners in the Witwatersrand, who were striking against the introduction of cheaper black labourers to the mines. The strike was put down when the government sent in troops, but in the resulting court cases Pirow was noted for his defence of the strike leaders.

Pirow came under the influence of Tielman Roos, an important figure in Transvaal and became a member of James Barry Munnik Hertzog's National Party being elected to parliament for Soutpansberg in 1924. He was eliminated in 1929 however after running against Jan Smuts in Standerton. However, despite this he was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Justice in place of Roos, who stood down, initially as a nominated senator. He won a by-election in October 1929 in Gezina however to confirm things and continued to represent the seat until 1943.

Pirow advocated the merger of the National Party to the South African Party and became a leading member of their new government, forming Hertzog's 'inner cabinet' alongside Smuts and N.C. Havenga. Aviation had been an early hobby of Pirow's and thus was to influence his work as a cabinet minister. His role in the cabinet also included responsibility for railways and harbours and from this basis he founded South African Airways and furnished it with Junkers aircraft. For Pirow, a strong advocate of both republicanism and a greatly increased role for South Africa in Africa as a whole, the foundation of the national airline was an important step in making the country more powerful.

A vehement anti-communist (indeed, when running in Gezina in 1929 Pirow vowed to legislate communism out of existence), Pirow became an admirer of Adolf Hitler after meeting him in 1933. In January 1935, the German cruiser Emden visited Cape Town, where Pirow arrived to welcome Karl Dönitz, the captain of the Emden, to South Africa. In a speech to the crew of the Emden, Pirow stated:

"Germany as a civilised state, is one of the chief exponents of our Western culture, which can be maintained only by white peoples, and preserved only by the united co-operation of all. Today, more than ever, when the rising tide of the coloured races is reaching higher and higher, the active help of a strong Germany is more than ever necessary. For us in South Africa the maintenance and spread of our white civilisation is a question of life and death. In this sense, I express the hope that Germany will again soon become a colonial power in Africa".

Pirow's speech at first attracted little attention, being only reported in the Cape Argus newspaper until the British journalist George Ward Price brought it up in an interview with Hitler for the Daily Mail newspaper. In response, Hitler stated: "Until it has been confirmed I should not like to pass any opinion. I will only say that if South Africa or any other government would offer to give us back any of our colonies we would accept them willingly". At that point, the speech became the subject of much debate both within South Africa and in Great Britain, where it was felt to be an offer to return Southwest Africa (modern Namibia) to Germany.