History of South Africa (1910–48) Good Hope. Smuts took severe action against the pro-Nazi South Africa Ossewabrandwag movement (they were caught committing acts of sabotage) and jailed its leaders for the duration of the war. (One of them, John Vorster, was to become future Prime Minister of South Africa.) (See Jan Smuts during World War II.) Prime Minister Jan Smuts was the only important non-British general whose advice was constantly sought by Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Smuts was invited to the Imperial War Cabinet in 1939 as the most senior South African in favour of war. On 28 May 1941, Smuts was appointed
South African Medal for War Services South African Medal for War Services The South African Medal for War Services is a South African service medal for voluntary unpaid service in support of the war effort between 6 September 1939 and 15 February 1946, during the Second World War. In addition to the British war medals which were awarded to combatants from all members of the British Commonwealth, several Commonwealth nations augmented the British awards by establishing their own service medals, all distinctive in design, purpose and criteria. The South African Medal for War Services was instituted by a Royal Warrant dated 29 December 1945, countersigned and