Pieter Johannes Meyer

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Piet Meyer
Director- General of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
In office
1959–1980
Preceded byRoos, G.D.
Succeeded byde Villiers, S.
Chairman of the Afrikaner Broederbond
In office
1960–1972
Preceded byThom, H.B.
Succeeded byTreurnicht, A.P.
Chancellor of the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit
In office
1978–1983
Preceded byDiederichs, N.J.
Succeeded byViljoen, G. vN.
Personal details
Born
Pieter Johannes Meyer

(1909-01-22)January 22, 1909
Ladybrand, Orange River Colony, South Africa
Died1984
SpouseIsabella Jacobs
Alma materUniversity of the Free State, University of South Africa

Pieter Johannes Meyer (22 January 1909 - 1984), a South African, was an influential Afrikaner in the South African Broadcasting Corporation and chairman of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

Roots[edit]

Meyer was born on 22 January 1909 in Ladybrand, Orange Free state, South Africa. Son of Izak Andries Meyer and Judith Jacoba van Huyssteen. He married Isabella Jacobs. He died in 1984.[1][2]

Education[edit]

He obtained a BA degree, a Higher Educational diploma, a MA(Psychology) and a M.Ed. from 1929 to 1934 at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. He studied at the Vrije universiteit in Amsterdam and completed his PhD at the University of South Africa in 1937.[1]

Career[edit]

In 1943 he open a publishing business, called L en S Boek & Kunsentrum. There after Meyer worked as a public relations officer at The Rembrandt Group. In 1959 he was appointed as director-general of the SABC, in which he remained until 1980. He was chairman of the Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) from 1960-1972. This was a secret white Afrikaner male organization. Meyer held a leading position in the Ossewabrandwag.[3][4][5]

Randse Afrikaanse University[edit]

As early as 1955, a committee was founded by Afrikaans cultural organizations to establish an Afrikaans university in Johannesburg. Meyer was chairman of the committee and Hennie Roux secretary. Meyer was in the management-leadership-team of the FAK.[6] They hand over a report to the government and it was accepted and the university started in 1966. He was also the Chancellor of the University from 1978-1983. They honoured him with an honorary doctorate.[7][8]

SABC[edit]

When Meyer started in 1959 the Corporation only broadcasting 350 hours per week. At his retirement from the corporation it broadcast 1050 hours per week and had radio stations most indigenous languages. He has overseen the introduction of Television broadcasting in South Africa in 1976. In 1961 he visited 18 cities world-wide and interviewed experts on radio and television.[1][9]

The interest of the Afrikaner[edit]

Meyer had the interest of the Afrikaner at heart. He worked with Dr Albert Hertzog in the 1930s (as member of the National Party) to make sure that the Afrikaner mineworkers find a place in the trade unions.[10] He was a key figure in establishing the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit in 1966. Through his position in the Afrikaner Broederbond he was able to influence both the SABC and the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit. In 1948 the South African Government declared Communism illegal. Churches formed an Anti-Communist Committee to protect Afrikaners against communism. Meyer was the second chairman of this committee replacing Diederichs, N.J.[1][11][12] He was also a writer of books on history of the Afrikaner.[13]

Recognition[edit]

He received apart from the one given by Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit honorary doctorates from the University of the Free State and University of Pretoria.[1] A bronze bust of him was erected in the foyer of the SABC’s head office building in Auckland Park Johannesburg, but it was later removed.[14]

Further reading[edit]

  • "South Africa's Secret Government". The Spectator. 13 January 1979. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  • "Piet Meyer". Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  • Moodie, D. (October 1980). "Special issue on contemporary Politics". Journal of Southern African Studies. 7 (1). JSAS: 127–129. doi:10.1080/03057078008708023. JSTOR 2636789.
  • Mzamane, M.V. (7 January 2000). "30 years of SABC". Sunday Times. Retrieved 29 August 2018.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Prinsloo, D. (1 May 1987). "Dr Piet Meyer in Johannesburg, 1936-1984" (PDF). Historia. 32 (1). University of South Africa: 44–54. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  2. ^ (Afrikaans) Nog nie ver genoeg nie (translated:not far enough). Perskor. 1984. ISBN 9780628024275.
  3. ^ "Media Mense". Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Afrikaner Broederbond (AB)". Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  5. ^ Marx, Christoph (2008). Oxwagon Sentinel: Radical Afrikaner Nationalism and the History of the 'Ossewabrandwag'. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 426. ISBN 978-3-8258-9797-0.
  6. ^ Moodie, D.T. (1980). The rise of the Afrikanerdom. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03943-8. the rise of the afrikanerdom.
  7. ^ Klee, J.N. (May 2017). "Establishing of Rand Afrikaans University 1955-1975" (PDF). North=West University. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  8. ^ "Today in history". SAHO. 2011-03-16. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  9. ^ Silke, D. (August 1989). "The broadcasting of politics in South Africa" (PDF). University of Cape Town. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  10. ^ O’Meara, D. (January 1978). "Analysing Afrikaner Nationalism: The 'Christian-National' Assault on White Trade Unionism in South Africa, 1934-1948". African Affairs. 77 (306). Oxford University Press: 45–72. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a096954. JSTOR 721347.
  11. ^ "Afrikaner anti-communist history production in South". Nanopdf.com. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  12. ^ "Broederbond in Afrikaner Politics". Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  13. ^ "Pieter Johannes Meyer".
  14. ^ "Static as channels change at SABC". Mail &Guardian newspaper. 17 November 1985. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
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