Barend du Plessis

Barend Jacobus du Plessis (born 19 January 1940 in Johannesburg) is a South African retired politician and a former member of the now-dissolved National Party, as well as Minister of Finance in 1984–1992.

Early life and education

Du Plessis grew up in Boksburg where he began his education at Pioneer Primary School and matriculated at Voortrekker High School in 1956. He obtained his BSc degree in 1960 from the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (now North – West University) and in 1961 he completed his Transvaal Higher Education degree.

On 23 November 1983, he was appointed the Minister of Education and Training in P. W. Botha's Cabinet, being succeeded the following year by Frederik Willem de Klerk. Here he encountered school boycotts in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, where he personally negotiated with the student leaders to deal to their problems. In an effort to ease tensions after the death of a student during police action, he consulted with Bishop Desmond Tutu, but by May 1984, six Atteridgeville and Saulsville schools closed. He sought to understand the role of the black community and to reorganise schools and pointed out that any parent or student had a direct communication with him as minister.

In 1984, during the budget speech of his department in Parliament senior black teachers attended the debate. He declared that there would be no racial restrictions in the future in the Department of Education.

Barend du Plessis was appointed the Minister of Finance in August 1984. He succeeded Dr. Owen Horwood, inheriting an extremely complex task. South Africa was in financial trouble as a result of various factors including the decline in value of gold. The rand/dollar exchange rate was at an all-time low and the land was shrouded in a general drought; with exports dropping significantly. In 1985, he was charged with the task of restructuring South African international credit so foreign banks could extend short-term credit to South Africa. He served as Finance Minister in the latter part of P. W. Botha's cabinet and in the first part of F. W. de Klerk's administration. He later became the chairman of the National Party 's Federal Information Committee and member of the Executive National Party in the Transvaal.

After P. W. Botha fell ill in 1989, he successfully contested interim president Chris Heunis and Foreign Minister Pik Botha in the struggle for the leadership of the National Party but was beaten in the final round by De Klerk, son of former interim president Jan de Klerk, by a 69–61 figure. Du Plessis was recalled to De Klerk's cabinet but left his post in 1992.

Personal life

He is married to Antoinette van den Berg and has four children.