‘He possessed intimate access to the President’: Piet Grobler, Kruger's confidant

Abstract

In this article the re la t ionship be tween P G W (Piet) Grobler and Pres ident Kruger is discussed. The quotat ion in the title is f rom the work Why Kruger made war b y John Buttery, which appea red in 1900. Buttery, the senior ass i s tan t editor of the Standard and Diggers" News in the two years immedia te ly preceding the Anglo-Boer War (18991902) was well known to the p res iden t ' s inner circle. As represen ta t ive of this semi-official gove rnmen t mouthp iece (the n e w s p a p e r was subsidised by the Transvaa l government as a counter to the other English language, proimper ia l i s t n e w s p a p e r s like The Star), Buttery had access to influential people in government circles. Despite this, But tery was by no means a Boer suppor te r and he placed the b lame for the war square ly on the shoulders of the Boer leaders . 2 His object ive percept ion of the re la t ively unknown Piet Grobler is i l luminating, par t icu lar ly as regards Grobler ' s dealings wi th Kruger. The remarkab le re la t ionship of confidential i ty be tween the p res iden t and Grobler is put under scru t iny in this article, because Grobler ' s ach ievements were due in large measure to Kruger ' s suppor t . Indeed, Grobler ' s for tunes were very closely linked to those of the pres ident . The article does not aim to focus on Groble r ' s career as Under State Secretary , but in the course of the discussion on the Kruger-Grobler re lat ionship, Grobler ' s official as well as his informal role will na tura l ly receive some attention.