FORMER APARTHEID era defence minister Magnus Malan, a key member of South Africa’s white minority government of the 1980s, has died at his home in Cape Town at the age of 81.
Gen Malan died peacefully in the early morning yesterday from heart failure, according to Gen Gert Opperman, a friend and former colleague acting as a spokesman for the family. “He had been ill for quite some time, and his condition had deteriorated in the past few weeks,” Gen Opperman said.
Born in Pretoria in 1930, Gen Malan served as minister of defence from 1980 to 1991, an appointment that followed a long military career that began in the 1950s. He rose up through the ranks of the South African Defence Force to be appointed chief in 1976.
He is known for having led the white minority government’s “total onslaught” strategy, which allowed him to focus every sphere of government against the anti-apartheid movement, which he believed to be backed by Russia.
The strategy included bombing southern African countries that supported the African National Congress and the overthrow of apartheid, and imposing a state of emergency in South Africa to end the pro-democracy protests of the 1980s.
He was also widely criticised internationally for using troops to control the unrest that erupted in the country’s townships during the last decade of apartheid rule.
He was removed from government in the early 1990s by South Africa’s last white president, FW de Klerk, following pressure from Nelson Mandela, who accused him of sanctioning the establishment of death squads to kill ANC activists.
He was then accused of having links to the killing of 13 people in KwaZulu-Natal province in 1987, and of illegally training black opponents of the ANC.
Gen Malan, along with other senior military men, was charged with murder in relation to the 13 deaths and put on trial. However, he was acquitted in 1996 by an apartheid-era judge, a ruling that outraged ANC activists.
According to a report by state broadcaster SABC yesterday, South African president Jacob Zuma described Gen Malan “as a man who served South Africa in his own particular way”.
The ANC also said yesterday that it had noted news of Gen Malan’s death.
“It marks the end of an era in South Africa’s history of transition from the tyranny of apartheid to constitutional democracy, with Malan having ultimately accepted the need for change in the country.
“We send our condolences to his family, relatives and friends,” the ruling party said in a statement.
Mr Malan is survived by his wife of 49 years, as well as three children and nine grandchildren.