12 Facts About Vause Raw

Wyatt Vause Raw was a conservative opposition South African politician of the Apartheid era.

Vause Raw was a prominent member of the United Party from the 1940s to the late 1970s, and the leader of the succeeding New Republic Party.

Vause Raw 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.

Vause Raw published Flares, a collection of war poems written during his military service.

Vause Raw was vice chairman of the United Party's Pretoria District and was elected to the divisional committee in 1948, where he served until 1950.

Vause Raw became a Senator for Natal in 1955, and won the Durban Point parliamentary seat for the party in 1958.

Vause Raw became the party's official spokesperson on defence and transport.

Vause Raw discredited the party in a string of by-election defeats from 1977 to 1980, by making "extravagant" claims of support and predicting victory in areas where the party had no prospects.

Vause Raw nevertheless continued in his capacity as leader until 1984.

Vause Raw served for many years in the whites-only parliament as the Member of Parliament for Durban's Point constituency.

Vause Raw was a lifelong honorary colonel of 38 Field Workshop Regiment.

Vause Raw retired from Parliament just before the 1987 general election.