Background
Abraham was born on August 28, 1914, in the Prieska district of Cape Province, 140 miles south-west of Kimberley.
Abraham was born on August 28, 1914, in the Prieska district of Cape Province, 140 miles south-west of Kimberley.
Educated at Upington, 80 miles from the South-west Africa border.
Unable to settle into a regular job after leaving school, he crossed into South-west Africa at the age of 20 to work on the railways. Eventually he got an indoor job as a clerk and spent much of his free time studying Afrikaans and its culture. In 1944, still a clerk, he was appointed to the executive committee of the Afrikaans Language and Cultural Society of the South African Railways and Harbours. His scholastic work on a degree course led to a Bachelor of Administration degree from the University of South Africa.
As a party worker always reliable in carrying out assignments however irksome, he was given the job of Chief Secretary in South-West Africa in 1945, a party post he held until 1961. When the Nationalists won power in 1948 he entered the South-West Africa Legislative Assembly as representative of Swakopmund. During the years 1950-5 as a member of the executive he served as administrator on occasions.
He was chairman and deputy leader of the party in South-West Africa from 1961 to 1968 and in 1969 he entered Parliament at Cape Town as MP for Windhoek. In May 1970 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs. Just over two years later he was promoted to cabinet rank in a reshuffle of the Vorster administration.
Hardliner from South-West Africa where be made his political reputation as a Nationalist Party Leader. A man who bas come up the hard way, working as a “White labourer” on the railways in South-West Africa, an experience which has left its mark. His roughened hands grasped books every spare moment he had, so that he could eventually gain a university degree.
His eagerness to learn politics made him willing to take on a wide variety of jobs as a party organiser. Not an initiator of policies but a man of dogged determination in ensuring that the party line is methodically carried out.