Malan, Daniel François [key], 1874–1959, South African political leader. A minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, he left the pulpit after the outbreak of World War I to become editor of an Afrikaner nationalist paper. Rising to prominence in the National party in Cape Province, he was elected to parliament in 1918. He served (1924–33) as minister of the interior, public health, and education in the cabinet of J. B. M. Hertzog. After World War II, Malan's National party and the small Afrikaner party, campaigning on the issue of white supremacy, came (1948) to power with Malan as prime minister. His government initiated the racial separation laws known as apartheid. He retired as prime minister in 1954.
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