Josef Johannes "Jopie" Fourie (27 August 1879 – 20 December 1914) was a Boer soldier. A scout and dispatch rider during the Boer War, he later took part in the Maritz Rebellion of 1914–1915 against General Louis Botha, the prime minister of South Africa. For his involvement, he was found guilty of treason and executed by firing squad.
By 1914, Fourie had been commissioned into the Active Citizens Force (ACF) as an officer of the Union Defence Force.[2]
Rebellion
By the beginning of 1914, the high economic expectations of the unification of South Africa had been dashed. Three to four years of drought had devastated farms in parts of the Orange Free State. The government suppression of the 1913 and 1914 strikes on the Witwatersrand alienated Afrikaner workers. This created a fertile ground for rebellion. The trigger for the rebellion was Britain's declaration of war in 1914, which also put South Africa in a state of war. As a result of this, His Majesty's Government asked the South African cabinet to invade the German colony of South West Africa.[3]
Without first resigning his British commission, Fourie led a Commando which inflicted 40 per cent of the casualties of Government security forces.[2] His commando also fired on its opponents during a brief truce.[4] In one instance, Fourie's men shot and killed a soldier, William Allan King, who was tending to a wounded man. Ironically, Fourie and King, a well-liked native administrator in Transvaal, were noted to have been good friends before the rebellion.[5] Fourie and his brother Hannes were captured at Nooitgedacht in the district of Rustenburg on 16 December 1914.[6]
Execution
After the rebellion was put down by Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, the ringleaders received fines and terms of imprisonment.[3]
The only death sentence imposed was upon Jopie Fourie.[6] An Afrikaner delegation that included future prime minister D. F. Malan unsuccessfully petitioned Minister of Defence, Gen. Smuts, to grant leniency. Fourie was executed without a blindfold by firing squad in the courtyard of Pretoria Central Prison on 20 December 1914.[7] In a letter written hours before his execution, Fourie wrote, "The tree which has been planted and which is wetted with my blood will grow large and bear delightful fruit."[8]
Legacy
The execution of Fourie was a divisive event in white politics. To Afrikaner believers in republicanism, Fourie was a martyr and Jan Smuts was a traitor. Fourie's court-martial and execution caused massive outrage and was a potent factor in the rise of the National Party.[9] Fourie was one of the martyrs and legends of the Maritz Rebellion which would inspire Afrikaner nationalism long afterwards.[10] The Jopie Fourie Primary School in Pretoria is named after him.[11]
Potgieter, D.J., ed. (1970). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa. Vol. V. Cape Town: NASOU.
Schonteich, Martin; Boshoff, Henri (2003). "'Volk' faith and fatherland. The security threat posed by the White Right". Institute for Security Studies Monographs (81). hdl:10520/EJC48735.
Wallis, Frikkie (2000). Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar [News Journal: facts and notes over 1000 years] (in Afrikaans). Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
External links
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