The Power of Your Life The Sanlam Century of Insurance Empowerment, 1918–2018 by Grietjie Verhoef

1 Growing opportunity
on African soil
A world of opportunity: the new century
Western nations were looking towards the twentieth century with hope, expecting
prosperity and progress as scientific and technological advancement had already brought
them higher living standards. The Western nations moulded their progress on the model
of ‘liberal capitalism’. This model secured material advantages, but was grounded in
a very specific political framework that promoted the freedom of speech, freedom of
commercial exchange, democratic self-government based on an ever-extending fran-

chise, freedom of scientific enquiry, and the mobility of the factors of production.
Progress and accumulation of wealth gradually led to the adoption of innovative
technology in industry, commerce, and communications and the expansion of financial
services. The world population of the new millennium became more urbanized, more
secular, and more materialistic. Business responded, either by driving or following this
global expansion, but the accompanying social democratization and political liberalization
were far from universal.
As Western influence spread across the globe, Africa was the subject of deliberations
at the Berlin Conference of 1884/1885 where the colonial powers agreed on the terms of
occupation, settlement, and control over territories. As the century drew to a close,
British imperial ambitions marched towards the resource-rich independent Boer Repub-

lics. By 1902, Britain had just emerged victorious from an unprecedented challenge to its
power. In the Southern African territories under British control, liberal capitalism
unfolded selectively only as far as the imperial goal was served. Britain steered the four
colonies, the Cape Colony, the Natal Colony, the Orange River Colony (formerly
the Republiek van de Oranje Vrijstaat), and the Transvaal Colony (formerly De Zuid-

Afrikaansche Republiek) under its authority towards the Union of South Africa in 1910.
However, it was primarily those of European descent who participated extensively in the
capitalist economy and the political liberties incrementally granted under stages of
political emancipation. British reconstruction in the former Boer Republics between
1902 and 1909 engineered the emergence of a white-controlled state in South Africa.

Afrikaners and the English-speaking settlers in the colonies shared a similar outlook on
racial co-existence. The Natal Colony implemented racial segregation resembling the
policies of the Union since the 1880s and during the National Convention (the successive
meetings deliberating on the structure of the planned Union—an all-European affair) the
delegates from Natal opposed the extension of the franchise model of the Cape Colony
universally in the new Union. In the Transvaal Colony the British High Commissioner,
Alfred Milner, was advised by Godfrey Lagden in 1903 (heading up a Commission to
advise Milner on the proposed restructuring of the former Boer Republic) that land
should be divided on racial lines—a framework closely resembling the core of the Natives
Land Act. No 27 of 1913.
Economic and business development occurred in the context of British imperial
preference. The Afrikaner community constituted reluctant subjects in the British
Empire. With Britain at the height of its imperial power, Afrikaners in South Africa
sought to regain lost sovereignty, but were caught between Empire and national pride.
While most of the British colonies in Africa were not even contemplating independence
from the Empire, or even any degree of autonomy compared to what was granted to the
Union of South Africa, British commercial interests in the newly established local mining
industry mandated the protection of their economic interests. British imperial pragma-

tism allowed the unfolding of a dichotomy between liberal capitalism and the paramount
interests of the Empire. South Africa was permitted to build the Union on European
political supremacy. Black people harboured expectations of British recognition after
the South African War, but their concerns were considered a different matter altogether,
a matter to be dealt with at a later stage. None of the African, Coloured or Indian leaders
were invited to unification negotiations. When the British Parliament considered the
South Africa Bill in 1909, their voices were disregarded. A delegation of black leaders
went to London, consulted widely with members of Parliament, journalists and the
Aborigines Protection Society, but to no avail.
The British Parliament passed the South Africa Act in both houses with a substantial
majority on 20 September 1909. Business development mirrored this political dualism.
The victorious political party at the first Union elections in 1910, the South African
Party, delivered a moderate reconciliatory message of collaboration between the ‘two

The Power of Your Life The Sanlam Century of Insurance Empowerment, 1918–2018 by Grietjie Verhoef