EXTRACT | Smuts vs Xuma
This is the first part of an edited extract from the chapter ‘Jan Smuts, Alfred Xuma and the Struggle for Racial Equality in South Africa, 1939-1948’, by Bongani Ngqulunga from ‘Reappraising the Life and Legacy of Jan C Smuts’
15 September 2024 - 00:00
When Jan Christiaan Smuts, the prime minister of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and again from 1939 to 1948, encountered Alfred Xuma, the sixth president-general of the ANC, at the UN General Assembly in New York in 1946, he is reported to have asked “Xuma, are you here? What are you doing here?” In reply, Xuma said “I have had to fly 10,000 miles to meet my prime minister. He talks about us but won’t talk to us.” ..
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