John Wiley

John Walter Edington Wiley (7 February 1927 – 29 March 1987) was a South African first-class cricketer and politician who served as the only white English-speaker in P. W. Botha's majority Afrikaans cabinet.

Education and cricket The son of James Byron Wiley, he was born in Cape Town suburb of St James in February 1927. He was educated at the Diocesan College, before enrolling at the University of Cape Town to study law. While studying at Cape Town, Wiley played first-class cricket, making two appearances for Western Province against Rhodesia and Orange Free State in the 1947–48 Currie Cup, in addition to making a single appearance for a South African Universities cricket team against the touring Marylebone Cricket Club in the same season. He scored two of what were to be his only first-class half centuries in these matches, with half century scores of 70 runs for Western Province and 50 runs for South African Universities. After graduating from Cape Town, Wiley went to England to study for his master's degree at Lincoln College at the University of Oxford. While studying at Oxford, he appeared in first-class cricket for Oxford University in 1949–1951, making nine appearances. He was expelled from the United Party following a liberal takeover led by Harry Schwarz, with Wiley founding his own party, the South African Party in 1977, alongside five other expelled United Party MPs. He disbanded the party in 1980, joining the ruling National Party led by P. W. Botha. Upon his joining of the National Party, Wiley triggered a by-election in his Simonstown constituency and notably defended it, defeating the former cricketer Eddie Barlow of the Progressive Federal Party and obtaining a breakthrough for the majority Afrikaans National Party in a predominantly English–speaking constituency. The exact motive behind his suicide has remained a matter of speculation, ranging from financial, The Lost Boys of Bird Island was retracted by publishers Tafelberg Press in 2020. Apologies were issued to family members of those implicated in the publication of the book. One such apology in the Rapport newspaper read: "We...apologise to our readers, Barend du Plessis and the family members of Magnus Malan and John Wiley for the blunder (in lack of fact or fact-checking prior to publication)...Although it had always been a given that we and other media would report on the book, the extremely harmful nature of the alleged offences should have cautioned us in our manner of reporting, which should always aim to serve the truth and minimise damage."