Early Life
Vorster was born in 1915 at Uitenhage, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, the fifteenth son of a successful sheep rancher. He attended school there and then, as a law student, entered Stellenbosch University. Stellenbosch University has been called the "cradle of Afrikaner nationalism." With six out of the seven prime ministers South Africa had between 1910 and 1971 being students from there its influence on the development of Afrikaans culture has been profound. Vorster involved himself in student politics becoming the chairman of the debating society, deputy chairman of the student council and leader of the junior National party.
In 1938, Vorster graduated to become a registrar (judge's clerk) to the judge president of the Cape Provincial Division of the South African Supreme Court. But he did not remain in this post for long, setting up his first law practice in Port Elizabeth and his second in the Witwatersrand town of Brakpan.
Read more about this topic: B. J. Vorster
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