This Day in History: August 2, 1926
Additional Date: August 2, 1926
South African statesman and the last prime minister of the Cape Colony before the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, John Xavier Merriman, died in Stellenbosch at the age of 85. Merriman was one of only a few members of Parliament who opposed the Native Land Act introduced in 1913, which drastically limited African ownership of land.