Jan de Wet

Johannes Marthinus (Jan, Jannie) de Wet (10 November 192713 February 2011) was a South African/Namibian politician and cattle farmer.

Early life Johannes Marthinus de Wet was born on November 10th, 1927, in Rouxville, South Africa.

From 1934 to 1940 he attended primary school in Outjo in Northern Namibia, and from 1941 to 1944, he went to Ficksburg High School in South Africa. From 1944 to 1947, he worked on farms in the Outjo district in Namibia, before later attending Stellenbosch University in South Africa for three years, studying for a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Science. At this time Namibia was being governed as ‘South West Africa’, and the government was seeking to legitimise and strengthen its mandate in the region.

In this position he administered and maintained the Bantustan systems in Namibia, and was thus central to the enforcement of Apartheid. The contract labour system was administered jointly by the government and the South West African Native Labour Association (SWANLA). De Wet was a member of the Transitional Government of National Unity from 1985 until independence in 1989. Following the 1989 democratic election, de Wet was selected to represent the ACN in the Constituent Assembly of Namibia (1989–90) and 1st National Assembly (1990–94). They spent much of this time with the government in Walvis Bay and parts of southern Namibia, and at points moved to South Africa proper. This has had complicated economic and social impacts.

Death In late 2010 De Wet was diagnosed with cancer. In early 2011 he was moved to Windhoek, where he died on Sunday the 13th of February 2011. He was 83 years old. He was survived by his wife Lesinda, 4 daughters and 13 grandchildren.