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F W Reitz, President van die Oranje Vrystaat saam met Jan Smuts, was verantwoordelik vir die ultimatum wat uitgeloop het op die oorlogsverklaring tussen die Boererepublieke en Brittanje in Oktober 1899. Reitz het Pretoria saam met Kruger verlaat terwyl die Britse magte in Mei 1900 opgeruk het. Hy was later een van die ondertekenaars van die 1902 Vredesverdrag van Vereeniging en beland later pens en pootjies in die Unie van Suid-Afrika, nes ander ‘leiers’. Die Unie van SA is uit London beheer.
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In the late 1870s and early 1880s the political temperature ran high in the Orange Free State. The annexation of the South African Republic (Transvaal) by the British in 1877 and the First Anglo-Boer War of 1880-1881 in which that republic regained its autonomy impacted deeply on political sentiments in the Orange Free State. On the one hand there were those who propagated caution in the relationship with the British, on the other there developed a political movement that strongly propagated a (reawakened) Afrikaner national consciousness.
Reitz was part of the latter, and together with C.L.F. Borckenhagen, editor of the Bloemfontein Express newspaper, he wrote a constitution for the Afrikaner Bond (Afrikaner Union), a political party originally set up by leading Afrikaner politicians in the Cape Colony, like Rev S.J. du Toit and his Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (‘Society of True Afrikaners’) and Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr and the Zuidafrikaansche Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging (‘South African Boer Protection Association’).
Among the supporters of this new Afrikaner nationalism in the Orange Free State was also Reitz’s successor, M.T. Steyn, then still a young lawyer. The constitution was presented in April 1881, and several months later Reitz became the chairman of the Bond.
In the Orange Free State Boer Republic, President Brand was one of the politicians who held on to a more cautious and consolidating policy towards the British government at the Cape, maintaining strict neutrality. In this position Brand followed the habit of a lifetime, and it earned him a British knighthood.
Later as president, Reitz was one of the first Afrikaners to actively develop a so-called Bantu policy, in philosophy and terminology going beyond contemporary ideas on segregation between white and black. Under his government Indian immigrants were by law forbidden to settle in the Orange Free State (1890). This led to a confrontation with the British government and an extensive correspondence between Reitz and the British high commissioner in Cape Town, in which internal sovereignty was claimed and established.
As could be expected, immediately after he was inaugurated, Reitz contacted the government of the South African Republic with the objective to establish new and closer political ties. Already on 4 March 1889 the Orange Free State and the South African Republic concluded a treaty of common defence at Potchefstroom. Treaties about trade and the railways were to follow. Even earlier, in January 1889, the Volksraad charged Reitz to negotiate a customs treaty with both the British South African colonies and the South African Republic.
On 20 March 1889 a Customs Conference was held in Bloemfontein which led to an agreement between the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony which was hugely beneficial for the former. The economic benefits grew further when new railway lines were opened between the Cape Colony and Bloemfontein (1890) and between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg (1892), directly connecting Cape Town with Johannesburg and turning the Orange Free State into a transit economy. For Reitz the development of a unified South African railway system was also a political goal: the railways as a means to diminish mutual distrust and create unity and mutual understanding between the white population of South Africa.
The State President of the South African Republic, Paul Kruger, was not an easy man to work with, and in some circles it was predicted that Reitz would quickly find himself subordinated to Kruger. This was not the case, however. On occasion the two men clashed on matters of policy, but Reitz remained true to his own convictions, gaining some influence over Kruger in the process. Originally praised by the British for his diplomatic courtesy, their attitude quickly changed when they understood that Reitz was a protagonist of Transvaal independence. Reitz was sometimes rather brazen in his political statements, so when he – incorrectly – claimed the South African Republic to be a fully sovereign state, the British jumped on him.
In view of rapidly mounting British pressure and an ensuing armed conflict over the position of the Uitlanders and economic control over the Witwatersrand gold fields, foreign policy in the South African Republic was eventually determined by a triumvirate: State President Kruger, State Secretary Reitz, and State Attorney General J.C. Smuts. During 1899 they decided that an offensive attitude towards British demands was the only way forward, despite the risks this entailed. Reitz sought and received the support of the Orange Free State for this approach. On 9 October 1899 the South African Republic and the Orange Free State issued a joint ultimatum to the British government retract their demands.
The British government did not give in to the ultimatum, and two days later, on 11 October 1899, the Second Anglo-Boer War (South African War) broke out. When the British army marched on Pretoria in May 1900, the government was forced to flee the capital. From that moment on, Reitz was responsible for the continuous relocation of its seat throughout the Transvaal, which occurred sixty-two times until March 1902. In May of that year, Reitz took an active part in the peace negotiations with the British, and he was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Vereeniging, signed in Pretoria on 31 May 1902.
Although instrumental in drafting the Treaty of Vereeniging, Reitz personally did not want to swear allegiance to the British government, and he chose to go into exile. On 4 July 1902 he left South Africa and joined his wife and children in the Netherlands. To alleviate his financial troubles, Reitz set out on a lecture tour in the United States.. Due to a waning interest in the Boer cause now that the war was over, the tour failed, forcing Reitz to return to the Netherlands. Here his health failed him again, leading to hospitalisation and an extensive period of convalescing. During this time he was supported by his friends W.J. Leyds and H.P.N. Muller and the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Vereeniging (Dutch South-African Society).
In 1907, after the old Boer republics received self-government, and in the run-up to the formation of the Union of South Africa, leading Afrikaner politicians J.C. Smuts and L. Botha asked Reitz to return to South Africa and play a role in politics again. Together with his wife, he established himself in Sea Point, Cape Town. In 1910, already seventy-six years old, he was appointed president of the Senate of the newly formed Union of South Africa.
These were no easy years, again, as former Afrikaner compatriots found each other on two sides of the political fence, in a rapidly changing world.
https://www.geni.com/people/Regter-Francis-Reitz-President-of-the-OFS/6000000002898226313
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UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 1910
Francis William Reitz (October 5, 1844-March 27, 1934) is not as well known a figure as Paul Kruger or M.T. Steyn. Reitz, made a signal contribution to the political and cultural history of South Africa, as a chief justice and president of the Orange Free State, (O.F.S.) and as the Union’s first Senate president.
Reitz represented Beaufort West in the Cape Legislative Assembly (1873-74), but in 1875 became Chief Justice of the recently established court of appeal in the Orange Free State, at the invitation of President Brand. When little more than a year later a Supreme Court was created, Reitz was named Chief Justice. Despite his Cape and British upbringing, he came to identify himself with the national aspirations of the Afrikaner, especially after the British annexation of the neighbouring ZAR, the South African Republics and the resultant first Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81. In 1889 Reitz was elected State President of the O.F.S. as successor to Jan Brand
As Free State President, Reitz was one of the most outspoken proponents of regulation, deculturation and subordination of the African population. He took for granted that there would be no equality of the races, and was instrumental in passing legislation prohibiting Indians to live in the Free State. He was admired for his spoken forthrightness in these matters. In June 1898, he became State Secretary of the ZAR. The idea of presenting Great Britain with an ultimatum originated with Reitz and J.C. Smuts.
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Francis William Reitz senior, agriculturalist and politician, was the son of Jan Frederik Reitz and his wife Barbara Jacoba van Reenen. One of his brothers, Johannes Jacobus (or Jacobus Johannes), was a lieutenant in the British navy and accompanied Captain W.F. Owen on his hydrographic surveys of the African coasts.
On 9 July 1833 F.W. married Cornelia Magdalena Deneys, with whom he had four sons and eight daughters. Their third son, named Francis William like his father, later became president of the Orange Free State.
https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2324
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In March 1895 Reitz’s health began to fail and he resigned as OFS President at the end of that year. In 1897 he settled in Pretoria and was sworn in as a Transvaal judge in 1898, and was eventually elected ‘Staatsekretaris’ (state secretary) of the Transvaal.
It was Reitz, together with Jan Smuts, who was responsible for the ultimatum which eventuated in the declaration of war between the Boer Republics and Britain in October 1899.
Reitz left Pretoria with Kruger as British forces advanced in May 1900. He was later one of the signatories of the 1902 peace treaty of Vereeniging.
After the war Reitz and his family spent time in the Netherlands and the USA before returning to South Africa in 1907 and settling in Cape Town, where in 1910 he became the first president of the Senate of the Union of South Africa. Reitz’s reputation as a steadfast republican increasingly alienated him from the reconciliatory Smuts and Botha government and he was not re-elected to presidency of the Senate in 1920, although he remained a senator until 1929. Reitz spent his retirement years involved in the writing and translation work, which he engaged in intermittently throughout his working life.
https://www.oliveschreiner.org/vre?view=personae&entry=348
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He studied agriculture in Scotland and returned to the Cape in 1830.
He was Member of Parliament and partner in the agricultural firm of Reitz, van Breda, Joubert & Co.
In 1867 he sold Rhenosterfontein at Bredasdorp and purchased Alexander Reid’s portion of Klippe Rivier.
https://www.ancestors.co.za/database/trees/getperson.php?personID=I70831&tree=100
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REITZ
Na die oorlog het Reitz en sy gesin tyd in Nederland en die VSA deurgebring voordat hulle in 1907 na “Suid-Afrika” teruggekeer het en hulle in die Kaapkolonie gevestig het. In hierdie tydperk was daar nog nie ‘n land soos Suid-Afrika nie, dit was Britse kolonies en Boere republieke sowel al die RESERVATE (swart groepe het hul eie grondgebiede beset) en KROONGEBIEDE (khoi san en griekwa gebiede is deur hulself beset).
Gedurende 1910 het hy die eerste president van die Senaat van die Unie van Suid-Afrika geword. Reitz se reputasie as ‘n standvastige republikein het hom toenemend van die versoenende Smuts- en Botha-regering vervreem en hy is nie in 1920 tot presidentskap van die Senaat herkies nie. Hoewel hy ‘n senator gebly het tot 1929 , was Reitz betrokke by die skryf en vertalingswerk spandeer.
Heelwat van die ‘sogenaamde Boere leiers’ wat inderwaarheid hulle agter die Britte geskaar het, was Afrikaners in murg en been. Dit wil sê in die verlede, nes die hede, word persone uitgevang wat op meer as een stoel sit. Dit is nie net onder die Afrikaners of selfs Boere volk die geval nie, maar ook onder swart en ander volke, selfs ander lande die geval, dat hulle deurgaan as dubbelgangers of spioene en word as “verraaiers” uitgekryt. Dit is presies wat vandag ook aan die gang is in Suid-Afrika.
In die tussen was dit hul posisie as ‘n persoon van X afkoms, wat maak of hul aan die B afkoms behoort. Tydens die 1914 BOERE rebellie is al (meeste) Boere leiers ter dood veroordeel deur die Unie regering.
BYKOMENDE INLIGTING – RELATED INFORMATION
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Verdrag van Vereeniging 1902
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CPA’s in SA & 2021
Richtersveld – KHOISAN AND CPA
Ingonyama Trustland (Zulu people)
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