Vause Raw
| Vause Raw | |
|---|---|
| Senator for Natal | |
|
In office 1955–1958 |
|
| Member of Parliament for Durban Point, Durban, Natal | |
|
In office 1958–1987 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
21 September 1921 Durban, Natal, South Africa |
| Died | 13 March 2001 (aged 79) Durban, South Africa |
| Political party |
United Party New Republic Party |
Vause Raw, DMS (21 September 1921–13 March 2001) was a moderate opposition South African politician of the Apartheid era. He was a prominent member of the United Party from the 1940s to the late 1970s, and the leader of the succeeding New Republic Party (NRP).
Raw was born in Durban, Natal in 1921. He matriculated from Pretoria Boys High and subsequently attended the University of the Witwatersrand and the Johannesburg Teachers' Training College before enlisting with the South African forces in May 1940, and went on to serve in the military in central Africa, Egypt and Europe.
He joined his father in a farming and trading venture from 1946 to 1950, served as secretary to the Pretoria District Farmers' Union, and was appointed a director of the Waterberg Farmers' Co-operative. In 1954, he became sales manager of a textile knitting mill, and from 1956 to 1981 ran his own textile and clothing machinery agency.
Raw was known for his support of ex-servicemen. He published Flares, a collection of war poems written during his military service.
He was vice chairman of the United Party's Pretoria District and was elected to the divisional committee in 1948, where he served until 1950. In 1951, he was appointed Natal secretary of the party. He became a senator for Natal in 1955 and won the Durban Point parliamentary seat for the party in 1958. He became the party's official spokesperson on defence and transport. In that position, he cooperated well with the National Party's Minister of Defence, even managing to secure concessions such as amendments to bills.
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