Random Article Summary #122

Jan S. Marais (April 23, 1919 – 2009) was a South African banker and politician. He founded and served as chairman of the Trust Bank of Africa, which became one of the country’s largest banks. He was also a National member of the Parliament of South Africa. In politics, he was known for speaking out against the apartheid system. Overall, he combined a major role in banking with public criticism of apartheid. Jan S. Marais, whose full name was Johannes Stephanus Marais, was born on April 23, 1919, in Fraserburg in the Northern Cape. He later studied at Stellenbosch University and graduated from there. Jan S. Marais was the general manager of Federale Volksbeleggings, an Afrikaner investment company. He founded the Trust Bank of Africa in 1954 and later sold it to Sanlam after it became one of the country’s major banks. Marais also served as non-executive chairman of FundTrust until it went bankrupt in 1991. Jan S. Marais was a critic of apartheid. In the 1970s, he chaired the South Africa Foundation and said the Anti-Apartheid Movement harmed South African businesses. Later, after selling Trustbank, he joined the National Party, became an MP for Durban, and used his political role to urge the repeal of the Group Areas Act. Jan S. Marais was born in Fraserburgh in South Africa’s Karoo and, as the oldest son, first had to help manage the family farm before being sent to university. He later became a key figure in changing banking, inspired by a childhood experience of how unwelcoming banks once were, and he was known for more worker-friendly policies. He married Peggy, who died in the 1980s, and they had an adopted daughter, Carla; Marais lived in several parts of Cape Town before moving to Durbanville, where he died in 2009.