The late Allister Sparks (1933-2016), veteran political reporter and book author, in the year before he died, reflected on some of the smart politicians he had seen in his long career, including Dr H.F. Verwoerd (South African Prime Minister 1958-66).

The sky fell in on Sparks for including Verwoerd in his list of ‘smart politicians’, in much the way Helen Zille, the current premier of the Western Cape, has been recently pilloried for saying that colonialism was not all negative.