The SA author and journalist, Herman Charles Bosman, shoots and kills his stepbrother David Russell during a quarrel

Herman Charles Bosman, who wrote under the pseudonym Herman Malan, was a South African author and journalist. He was educated at Jeppe High School and the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), and later appointed to a teaching post in the Marico district of the North West Province (then North-West Transvaal). On 18 July 1926, while home on vacation in Johannesburg, he became involved in an argument with his stepbrother, David Russell, and shot him dead on impulse. After this, he was imprisoned for four and a half years, from the age of 21. After his release he pursued a career in journalism. During his career, Bosman was founder and editor of The Touleier (1930) and was literary editor of South African Opinion and Trek (1944-9). In 1950, Bosman began to write humourous short stories for the weekly magazine, Forum. He also wrote several books under his pseudonym, but was most well know for his collection of stories, Mafeking road, which led to his reputation as a master story-teller and stylist, who evolved an individual "Afrikaans-tinctured English". Bosman is also regarded as the first serio-humourist in English South African literature. References: Potgieter, D.J. et al. (eds)(1970) Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Cape Town: NASOU, v. 2, p. 431 Wallis, F. (2000) Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar, Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau