101. The Gold Standard

From Wikipedia Havenga was a leading member of Hertzog's government and indeed with Oswald Pirow he formed the basis of Hertzog's 'inner cabinet' which controlled decision making.[2] As Finance Minister he was responsible for the decision to take South Africa off the gold standard, one that led to a significant economic upturn.[3] Havenga had formerly been a harsh critic of this move, reflecting populist opinions that gold-producing South Africa should refuse to follow the United Kingdom off the gold standard as a piece of nationalist posturing against the British.[4] In 1932 however rumours had been circulating that Tielman Roos was intending to split from the government over the issue and form a new party that would go into coalition with Jan Smuts, forcing Havenga to abandon his earlier stance to save the government.[5]