Constand Viljoen
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General Constand Viljoen SSA SD SOE SM (b 1933) is a former South African military commander and politician. He joined the South African Army as an artilleryman in 1954. In the 1960s, he commanded the School of Artillery and the SA Army College, and in the early 1970s he was Director of Artillery. He was the senior officer in the campaign in Angola in 1975-1976.
He served as Chief of the Army from 1976 to 1980, and as Chief of the SA Defence Force from 1980 to 1985.
Viljoen is credited by some with kick-starting the Afrikaners' self-examination that lead to their acceptance of universal suffrage and free elections, with his famous speech at the Broederbond annual assembly in Voortrekkerhoogte, saying of the black South Africans in his army - As hulle kan veg vir Suid-Afrika, kan hulle stem vir Suid-Afrika! ("If they can fight for South Africa, then they can vote for South Africa!").
In 1994 he entered politics as co-founder and leader of the Freedom Front, representing conservative Afrikaner interests. The Freedom Front was a secession of the Afrikaner Volksfront which was an umbrella organization of the white right, dominated by the Conservative Party. On 12 March 1994 Viljoen definitively decided that the FF would take part in the forthcoming elections after his attempt in Bophuthatswana failed to come with right militias to the rescue of Lucas Mangope who was reluctant to participate in the elections.
Although his party was at odds with the ANC government over the Afrikaners' unfulfilled desire for a separate state (Volkstaat), Viljoen praised Nelson Mandela on the occasion of his retreat from politics in 1999, even ending his Parliamentary speech with an attempt at speaking in Mandela's native language, Xhosa. Translated, he said: Go rest in peace. Go rest in the shadow of a tree at your home.
In 2001 Viljoen handed over the leadership of the Freedom Front to Pieter Mulder and retired from politics.
The progenitor of the Viljoen name was a French Huguenot named François Villion from Clermont France who arrived at the Cape in 1671. François Villion was the first French Huguenot to arrive at the Cape at almost two decades ahead of the mass arrivals of the French Huguenot refugees to the region. The spelling of the name changed from Villion to Viljoen as a result of the French pronunciation.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ces Francais Qui Ont Fait L'Afrique Du Sud. Translation: The French People Who Made South Africa. Bernard Lugan. January 1996. ISBN 2841000869'
