Background
Barend was born on January 19, 1905, at Johannesburg, South Africa.
Barend was born on January 19, 1905, at Johannesburg, South Africa.
Educated at Forest Secondary School, Johannesburg which he left in 1921 to join the railways.
Promoted to fireman, he worked at night school for the qualifications to become an engine-driver. Then his ambition turned to railway administration and he worked his way up to stationmaster. Even then he did not stop studying; in his spare time he prepared for a Bachelor of Economics degree.
His political career started in 1938 on his election to Parliament as United Party MP for Maraisburg. He quarrelled with the party over its policy at the outbreak of the Second World War and resigned. He was defeated at the next general election but he won back the Maraisburg seat as a Nationalist in 1948.
He joined the cabinet on October 19, 1950, as Minister of Labour and Public Works. Three years later on December 1954 Prime Minister J. G. Strijdom made him Minister of Transport. Prime Minister Verwoerd reappointed him to Transport in 1958 and Prime Minister Vorster kept him in the post when he came to power in 1966.
Always a dependable deputy to Vorster he was assigned to deputise at the Ministry of Defence in June 1971 when Minister P. W. Botha was out of the country. His grass-roots knowledge oi the party strengthened his position as leader of the Nationalists in Transvaal. He paved the way for Connie Mulder to bid for the premiership by surrendering the leadership of the Transvaal Nationalist Party to him in September 1972.
Trusted workhorse of the Nationalist government, capable of turning his hand to any task and once thought a possible interim Prime Minister after the assassination of Verwoerd in 1966. Longest-serving member of the cabinet, dating back to his first appointment in 1950. A self-made man who began on the railways and pushed himself forward by the sweat of his brow. Little time for political philosophy, but richly endowed with down-to-earth loyalty to his party