Background
Michiel was born on December 14, 1912, at Bindley, Orange Free State.
Michiel was born on December 14, 1912, at Bindley, Orange Free State.
Educated at Secondary School. Went to Stеllеnbosch University in 1930 and Sained his Bachelor of Arts degree.
After teaching from 1935 to 1937 in tansvaal schools he was a lecturer from 193 7 to 1943 at Victoria Technical College. In 1943 he went to Johannesburg to become assistant secretary and later secretary of the Association for Afrikaans Language and Culture.
He turned to politics in 1953 when he became MP for Roodepoort, near Johannesburg. In 1958 he was appointed an information officer for the Nationalist Party. Prime Minister Verwocrd made him Deputy Minister of Bantu Administration and Development in November 1960. Six years later he was promoted to the cabinet and given full charge of Bantu policy.
Chief architect of Bantustan policy over the past decade. An authority on Afrikaans culture, he progressed from ’caching to politics but preserved his interest in education throughout his Political career. Rigid in his concept of ’he Africans’ place in South Africa, Unyielding in defining the African homelands strictly in terms of the 1936 Act.