*Clive van Ryneveld greets Ian Craig (left) during the visit of the Australians in 1957-58*

Arunabha Sengupta

(This brief profile has been put together from Arunabha Sengupta’s forthcoming book Apartheid: A Point to Cover which is scheduled to be released in May 2020.
The photographs are also from the book.)

Clive van Ryneveld had an eventful 1957. He got married on the second of February, between the third and fourth Tests against England. . His honeymoon in Plettenberg Bay was cut short so that he could be ready for the fourth Test. Especially with Jackie McGlew injured, van Ryneveld was the acting captain. His wife Verity was flown to Johannesburg at the expense of South African Cricket Association, but she has not been allowed to stay in the team hotel.

After leading the side to 2-2 tie against England—coming back from 0-2 down—he became a father. Subsequently, he was persuaded by close friend, the young Union Party leader Zach de Beer, and leader of opposition Sir de Villers Graaff, to stand in a parliamentary by-election at East London.

A few months before the 1958 general election was due, Herman Malcomess, the United Party MP for East London, died, and at de Beer’s suggestion, Sir de Villers Graaf, recently elected leader of Union Party, convinced van Ryneveld to stand. This would be the last election till 1994 in which Coloured voters would vote in the same roll as the Whites. Van Ryneveld soon saw himself canvassing their votes.

Meanwhile Hendrik Verwoerd’s grand design for the country was continuing unabated. According to him, Africans had to exercise their voting rights separately, in the reserves set aside for them. There were to be separate homelands for each of the eight separate language groups of African people, full-fledged independent Bantustans. This was the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act.

Reactions to this Act were various and led to disagreements among the United Party as well. Twelve members of parliament resigned from the United Party after the Bloemfontein congress in July, among them the East London MP Clive van Ryneveld. The 12 members formed their own Progressive Party in November 1959. One of the key members of the party was Helen Suzman, who would be the party’s only Member of Parliament for the next 13 years and would unequivocally protest all the apartheid legislation all through.

McGlew, a defender of apartheid, would later gun for the National Party. In contrast Van Ryneveld, liberal and a supporter of non-White cricketers, was one of the 12 MPs to form the Progressive Party.

Cut to 1964-65. MCC was in South Africa, and the third Test at Newlands was going on.

It was during this Test that veteran commentator Charles Fortune was joined in the commentary box by the now ex-cricketer Clive van Ryneveld. The former captain had been wooed by the South African Broadcasting Corporation for half-hour views on the game. Seeing van Ryneveld come in, Fortune gruffly informed him that the deal is off since he had not confirmed his agreement. Van Ryneveld retreated in surprise. There had no confirmation clause, but there was no point in arguing.

It was many years later that Fortune will would van Ryneveld the truth—his employers at SABC had told him categorically that he “cannot have that Progressive in the broadcasting box.”

Clive van Ryneveld was a multi-faceted personality. He played rugby for Oxford and then for England in the Five Nations, and played 19 Tests for South Africa as an all-rounder, scoring 724 runs at 26.81 and picking up 17 wickets at 39.47. He was also a splendid fielder and the picture shows him catching Cowdrey off Tayfield in the fifth Test of 1956-57.

Clive van Ryneveld was born on March 19, 1928.