page_title: Paul Kruger
section_title: Early 1890s
hierarchical_section_title: Paul Kruger / President / Early 1890s
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Cecil (John) Rhodes, engelsk finansmann og politiker. Han bygget opp et imperium i Sør-Afrika. Statsminister i Cape Colony (1890-96). Organisator av diamantgruvedriften (De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. (1888)). English: Cecil (John) Rhodes, British financier and politician. He built an empire in South Africa. Prime minister of Cape Colony (1890-96). Organizer of the diamond mining company (De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. (1888)) Deutsch: Cecil (John) Rhodes, englischer Finanzmann und Politiker. Er baute in Süd-Afrika ein Imperium auf. Staatsminister in Cape Colony (1890-96). Organisator des Diamantgrubenbaus (De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. (1888)). Español: Cecil (John) Rhodes, financiero y político inglés. Fundó un imperio en Sudáfrica. Primer ministro en la Colonia del Cabo (1890-1896). Organizador de la compañia minera (diamantes) De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. (1888)). Français&#160;: Cecil (John) Rhodes, homme d'affaires, magnat des mines, politicien et philanthrope britannique, qui bâtit un véritable empire en Afrique méridionale. Premier ministre de la Colonie du Cap de 1890 à 1896. Organisateur de la compagnie diamantaire De Beers (1888). La Rhodésie, devenue depuis 1980 le Zimbabwe, lui doit son nom. Nederlands: Cecil (John) Rhodes, Britse financiër en politicus. Hij had een vermogen in Zuid-Afrika. Premier van Kaap Kolonie (1890-96). Oprichter van de diamantmijnmaatschappij (De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. (1888)). Depicted person&#58; &#32;Rhodes, Cecil (John) (1853-1902) Depicted place&#58; Norsk bokmål: London, Storbritannia English: London, Great Britain Deutsch: London, Großbritannien Español: Londres, Gran Bretaña Français&#160;: Londres, Grande Bretagne Nederlands: Londen, Groot-Brittannië
context_page_description: Stephanus Johannes Paulus "Paul" Kruger was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Nicknamed Oom Paul, he came to international prominence as the face of the Boer cause—that of the Transvaal and its neighbour the Orange Free State—against Britain during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He has been called a personification of Afrikanerdom, and remains a controversial and divisive figure; admirers venerate him as a tragic folk hero, and critics view him as the obstinate guardian of an unjust cause.
  Born near the eastern edge of the Cape Colony, Kruger took part in the Great Trek as a child during the late 1830s. He had almost no education apart from the Bible, and through his interpretation believed the Earth was flat. A protégé of the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius, he witnessed the signing of the Sand River Convention with Britain in 1852 and over the next decade played a prominent role in the forging of the South African Republic, leading its commandos and resolving disputes between the rival Boer leaders and factions.
context_section_description: In mid-March 1890 Kruger met the new British High Commissioner and Governor Sir Henry Brougham Loch, Loch's legal adviser William Philip Schreiner, and Rhodes, who had by now attained a dominant position in the Transvaal's mining industry and a royal charter for his British South Africa Company to occupy and administer Matabeleland and Mashonaland. A group of Transvaalers planned to emigrate to Mashonaland—the so-called Bowler Trek—and Rhodes was keen to stop this lest it interfere with his own plans. He and Loch offered to support Kruger in his plan to acquire a port at Kosi Bay and link it to the Transvaal through Swaziland if in return the Transvaal would enter a South African customs union and pledge not to expand northwards. Kruger made no commitments, thinking this union might easily turn into the federation Britain had pursued years before, but on his return to Pretoria forbade any Boer trek to Mashonaland.
  Rhodes became prime minister of the Cape Colony in July 1890. A month later the British and Transvaalers agreed to joint control over Swaziland (without consulting the Swazis)—the South African Republic could build a railway through it to Kosi Bay on the condition that the Transvaal thereafter supported the interests of Rhodes's Chartered Company in Matabeleland and its environs. Kruger honoured the latter commitment in 1891 when he outlawed the Adendorff Trek, another would-be emigration to Mashonaland, over the protests of Joubert and many others. This, along with his handling of the economy and the civil service—now widely perceived as overloaded with Dutch imports—caused opposition to grow. The industrial monopolies Kruger's administration granted became widely derided as corrupt and inefficient, especially the dynamite concession given to Edouard Lippert and a French consortium, which Kruger was forced to revoke in 1892 amid much scandal over misrepresentation and price gouging.
  Kruger's second volksraad sat for the first time in 1891. Any resolution it passed had to be ratified by the first volksraad; its role was in effect largely advisory. Uitlanders could vote in elections for the second volksraad after two years' residency on the condition they were naturalised as burghers—a process requiring the renunciation of any foreign allegiance. The residency qualification for naturalised burghers to join the first volksraad electorate was raised from five to 14 years, with the added criterion that they had to be at least 40 years old. During the close-run campaign for the 1893 election, in which Kruger was again challenged by Joubert with the Chief Justice John Gilbert Kotzé as a third candidate, the President indicated that he was prepared to lower the 14-year residency requirement so long as it would not risk the subversion of the state's independence. The electoral result was announced as 7,854 votes for Kruger, 7,009 for Joubert, and 81 for Kotzé. Joubert's supporters alleged procedural irregularities and demanded a recount; the ballots were counted twice more and although the results varied slightly each time, every count gave Kruger a majority. Joubert conceded and Kruger was inaugurated for the third time on 12 May 1893.
  Kruger was by this time widely perceived as a personification of Afrikanerdom both at home and abroad. When he stopped going to the government offices at the Raadsaal by foot and began to be conveyed there by a presidential carriage, his coming and going became a public spectacle not unlike the Changing of the Guard in Britain. "Once seen, he is not easily forgotten", wrote Lady Phillips. "His greasy frock coat and antiquated tall hat have been portrayed times without number ... and I think his character is clearly to be read in his face—strength of character and cunning."
caption: Cecil Rhodes, the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890
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