With order and unity in the Empire breaking down or threatening to collapse all-together, it was little surprise when Prime Minister Hertzog's faction of the South African government introduced an proposal to completely sever South Africa's connection with the British Empire and become a completely independent state. In an effort to contain the expected firestorm that such an effort would result, and to create the image with the public that such a separation was a majority or unanimous decision by the legislature, Hertzog's party and followers attempt to bar General Smuts and the members of his South African Party from entering the National Assembly during the vote, as well as arresting SAP members on a multitude of charges.
When the National Party heavies and suborned law officers arrived to arrest and detain General Smuts, they find that the local British Army and South African military forces remain loyal to the General, and in short order find themselves arrested as the General declares martial law in South Africa, and the arrest of Prime Minister Hertzog and the leadership of the National Party for treason.
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With the military in South Africa's loyalty to General Smuts all but universal, the attempted takeover by the National Party crumbles quickly as the various leaders of the lockout and the suborned law officers are arrested. The entire course of events runs itself out in a little more than a day, and order is restored to South Africa. With the National Assembly temporarily suspended, the Separation Act is never voted upon, and South Africa remains a part of the British Empire.
In the newsreels and papers across the English-speaking world and the far flung reaches of the Empire, General Smuts is hailed as a decisive leader and defender of democracy, the scourge and foe of tyranny and the future of South Africa. In London, the semi-coup launched by the General is a much needed bit of good news, and the imperiled Churchill-Mosley government manages to drag in some good press. In the circles of power, there is much talk of promoting the General for some very important work, and already ideas and big words are tossed about.
In a show of mercy, General Smuts pardons most of the leadership of the National Party from the gallows (but not all, a handful of men take a long walk at the end of a short rope) but with their involvement in the recent "Event of June 14th", they cannot be allowed to re-enter the political arena, and instead shall be confined to house arrest for the rest of their lives, under armed guard with all visitors screened and approved by General Smuts, and all contact with the outside world filtered through censors and other important figures. Only one person denounces General Smuts' commuting of sentences: former Prime Minister Hertzog. Loudly and through several intermediaries, he demands a trial, proclaiming he has done nothing wrong except work for South Africa's best interests.
James Barry Munnik Hertzog will receive his trial before a military court and be found guilty of treason. During the brief period between his trial and execution, many of the people who come into contact with the condemned man will later record that Hertzog vehemently denied involvement with the attempted coup and his innocence of treason. It is publicly recorded that Hertzog's last words before his execution are "Damn Britain, Damn Smuts, God Bless South Africa." but several of the guards at the gallows tell that his last utterance was "By god I am innocent!" The former Prime Minister is pronounced dead on June 29th, 1932.
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The aftermath of the National Party's fall from grace did not find Jan Smuts idle, as he was now the leader of South Africa, and found himself looked to by every British colony from Kenya all the way to his own South Africa. Of his own accord, General Smuts begins to shuffle troops around, make phone calls and have messages delivered, hunting bandits, making shows of presence and reassuring landowners, settlers, natives and businesses that all is in order and stable. This does much to return calm to the region, and to build up Smuts reputation, and many leaders and politicians across Southern Africa defer to Smuts leadership or seek his advice or opinion on a number of important subjects before putting them into practice.
This in turn builds up Jan Smuts in the eyes of the British public and the government itself, and he is rapidly becoming acknowledged as the authority on leadership in Africa, and a little after a month and a half after the death of Hertzog, the General is called to London to discuss an issue of vital importance to the Empire and to British Colonies in Central and Southern Africa.
In Africa it has become unofficially bad for one's career or business to be known to speak ill of the General in public or in large social circles as well as to be associated with the crippled National Party, but among those isolated circles and very quietly amongst Smuts' detractors in Britain there are questions being asked, very serious questions. Foremost is how quickly and efficiently the South African Party and Smuts' loyal forces disassembled the National Party takeover, and how thorough the purge of the government was. Other questions involve why Hertzog would risk such a dangerous move on a vote that a number of people think would have gone his way in a narrow margin, and that the takeover was such a gross miscalculation as to be unimaginable. Some of the most die hard critics, mostly composed of former National Party members with military experience use the term "false flag" to describe the course of events, alleging that General or someone close to him instigated and organized the takeover without the knowledge of Hertzog or his fellows in the senior NP leadership and set the takeover to fail in order to seize power for himself. In the years following Smuts own death, several books will be written on the subject, but will never bring enough conclusive evidence to prove it so.