NAME OF BOER GENERALJBM HERTZOG, REPUBLIC OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE 1899-1902, SOUTH AFRICA

GENERAL JBM HERTZOG'S NAME IN SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY:

Barry Hertzog Avenue in Johannesburg is one of the busiest roads in the Gauteng Provice of the South African Republic. Consequently multiple SA citizens use this road without knowing from where does the name is derived.  Though many Afrikaans names were transformed (Africanised) since the new SA political dispensation, Barry Hertzog Avenue seems to survived the transformation process.

However, the JBM HERTZOG Airport in Bloemfontein was changed to Bram Fischer Airport.  The same happened with the JBM Hertzog High School which was changed to Bloemfontein High School. There are still two schools in SA with the Hertzog name, one in Witbank and t5he other in the Eastern Cape up to date.

There is also a university student residence under the name JBM HERTZOG HOSTEL.

A little town of Hertzogville also survived to a certain extent in the Western Free State.

One of the prizes for Afrikaans literature, is also known as the HERTZOG PRIZE. Earliier in his career Hertzog was responsible for education just after the Boer War (circa 1903-1910). He defended the legal status of Afrikaans in a court case. Fellow Afrikaners collected money for the case and subsequently won the dispute about the rights of Afrikaner learners.  The money was used to create the Academy for Art and Science in a little room at the Technical College in Bloemfontein , now the Motheo College, in St Georges Street.

During the Boer War, General Hertzog studied the strategies of Carlyle and implemented it with great success.  Soon the new strategy of the whole Boer commando system adapted to guirilla warfare which forced the British army to expand its deployment of more soldiers and additional armourment.  It also extended the time of the war up to three years.

When Hertzog became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1927 ntil 1938, he also held the portfolio of foreign affairs.  Consequently he was aware of the interest of the Americans in South African uranium.  This confidential information was held in the safe of the Prime Minister's office.  Hertzog has warned is political opponente about a war with devestating weapons and did not want to get involved in the Second World War.  However, he lost the political battle against General Jan Christiaan Smuts who signed a teraty to support Enland in her war against Germany.  I

Indeed Hertzog was a great thinker also to create jobs and industries such as the Electrical Supply Commission (ESCOM) and YSKOR (Stell production corpporation.  In hind sight , indeed a great thinker and mover.