A born leader and natural pilot: The Sailor Malan Memorial Lecture

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of Sailor Malan’s passing, the McGregor Museum hosted a memorial lecture on 16 September 2023 at Sol Plaatje University (SPU). Dr Yvonne Malan delivered an impactful speech, “I Fear No Man”, shedding light on the life and enduring legacy of Sailor Malan.

SPU Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Andrew Crouch, welcomed the assembly, offering a brief synopsis of Sailor Malan’s life and contributions. Esteemed guests and panellists for the occasion included US Ambassador to South Africa, Reuben E Brigety II; Dr Yvonne Malan; Ms Sunet Swanepoel, CEO of McGregor Museum; and representatives from the South African and British Legion, among others.

Dr Yvonne Malan, who is also Vice-President and Patron of the Spitfire Society, inspired the audience by saying, “Sailor truly feared no man in the cause of justice. His legacy endures, and still, it inspires us. We should thank God that such men lived. Our lives are their legacy, and their lives are our duty.”

Ambassador Brigety highlighted Sailor Malan’s impact, extending not just within South Africa but also to the United States. Captain Tony Nicholas of the SATS ‘General Botha’ Old Boys’ Association presented the university with three copies of The Legend Lives On – The SATS General Botha and a Century of Honourable Duty, a book that delves into the life of Sailor Malan and the lasting legacy of the ship and its crew.

The lecture concluded with an interactive panel discussion, allowing for a question and answer session with the audience.

The life and legacy of Sailor Malan

A born leader and natural pilot, Adolph Gysbert “Sailor” Malan is one of the most highly regarded fighter pilots of the Second World War and one of the best fighter pilots South Africa has ever produced. During his exceptional career, he was awarded the and Distinguished Flying Cross and received the Distinguished Service Order.

He returned to South Africa after the war and became the personal and political assistant to Harry Oppenheimer, Head of the De Beers, an Anglo-American Corporation, who facilitated Sailor Malan’s move to farming on the Benfontein farm outside Kimberley where he worked at the Oppenheimer racehorse stud farm Mauritzfontein. It was the leasing of Benfontein to Sailor Malan that saw dramatic improvement in the quality of life for those who lived there. Electricity was installed at the farm from Kimberley, and major renovations and rebuilding of places of the Homestead were made with costs covered by the De Beers Company.

A political fighter, anti-apartheid campaigner and champion for racial equality, Sailor Malan became president of the Torch Commando: a protest group of ex-servicemen in the early 1950s. This was a liberal anti-authoritarian organisation that opposed the introduction of the apartheid system and the National Party’s plans to remove Cape Coloured voters from the common voter’s roll.

The Torch Commando at its zenith had 250 000 members, and in landmark protests across South Africa it brought of tens of thousands of protestors carrying torches of light and freedom into physical defiance of the Nationalist government. The Torch Rally in Cape Town attracted 50 000 and in Johannesburg nearly 75 000 people protested the National Party governments and its apartheid ideologies.

At age 52, Sailor Malan succumbed to Parkinson’s Disease on 17 September 1963. Due to his prominent role in opposing apartheid, the then South African government sought to sideline the event of his passing to further erase any legacy of the Torch Commando. The Apartheid government banned members of the South African military from attending in uniform, censored newspaper obituaries and eventually wrote him out of the country’s history over the decades. The South African Air Force was also instructed not to give any tribute to his passing. The United States Air Force – along with the UK Royal Air Force and the Royal Rhodesian Air Force – decided to send representatives in uniform to Sailor’s funeral to honour his service and to protest the Apartheid regime’s prohibition on giving Sailor the military honours  he deserved.

Apart from his aerial combat skills, Sailor Malan can also be counted as one of the very first anti-apartheid struggle heroes. Although he has received little recognition for his work as leader of the Torch Commando, he continues to remain an activist and front-runner for equality in the history books.

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