Carel van der Merwe

Van der Merwe was born on 7 September 1963 in Johannesburg.[1] His father, Carel van der Merwe (1936-2016), was managing director of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Ltd.[2] During his youth Van der Merwe attended various schools in South Africa and Germany, and matriculated in 1981 at Linden High School in Johannesburg. Following his compulsory military service he studied at Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town, where he obtained undergraduate and post-graduate business degrees. He qualified as a chartered accountant, and worked for the international auditing firm Arthur Andersen & Co in Johannesburg and London until 1991.[3]

In 1991 he joined Rand Merchant Bank Ltd in Johannesburg, and worked in the corporate finance division. In this capacity he assisted in the formation of New Africa Investments Limited (NAIL), one of the first companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) controlled by black businesspeople. In 1995 he was invited by dr. Nthato Motlana, the chairman of NAIL, to help found a investment bank, which was listed as African Merchant Bank Limited (AMB) on the JSE in 1997. Van der Merwe served as an executive director and head of corporate finance of AMB. The listing of AMB in 1997 was voted the most successful of that year. Cyril Ramaphosa, the current president of South Africa, as well as Dikgang Moseneke, former Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa, served on the board of directors of AMB.[4] In 2000 Van der Merwe relocated to London to serve as an executive director (mergers and acquisitions) of Comparex Limited, an international IT company.[5] Whilst living in London he completed his part-time MA in Writing at Middlesex University, graduating with distinction in 2005. In 2006 relocated to Stellenbosch, South Africa’s oldest town.[6] He is currently chairman of the Stellenbosch Heritage Trust, which owns and manages a portfolio of historic buildings.[7] He is also a director of AMB Capital Ltd, the successor of AMB.[8] In 2018 he obtained a Phd in History at Stellenbosch University.[9] He has two daughters, Mieke and Emma.

Van der Merwe only started writing in his early forties. In 2004 he published his first short story, The Water Mountains, in an UK short story collection. In 2007 he published his debut novels, No Man’s Land and Nasleep, written by him in English and Afrikaans respectively. Both books were favourably reviewed, with No Man's Land being shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize[10] as well as the M-Net Literary Awards,[11] and Nasleep for the UJ Literary Prize.[12] A reviewer described it as a “gripping and realistic portrayal of an Afrikaner man’s cathartic journey through the pre- and post apartheid South Africa, and reminds one of Bernard Schlink’s The Reader”.[13]

Van der Merwe also wrote his next novel in English and Afrikaans, and Shark and Geldwolf were published in 2009. Geldwolf was shortlisted for the M-Net Literary Awards (film category),[14] and awarded the Eugène Marais Prize by the South African Academy for Arts and Science.[15] A reviewer wrote that Shark is “guaranteed to enthrall” and “affects one’s thinking long after you’ve passed it on to a good friend.”[16] Another reviewer described it as “intelligent, well-plotted and offering a fascinating insight into the politics of power.”[17]

In 2012 his third novel was published, once again written by him English and Afrikaans, as Shadow and Skaduwee respectively. A reviewer described Shadow as a South African James Bond novel, but as “more elegantly written and rather more serious, both in its exploration of a man's purpose in life and in its comment on the scene of the action, in this case South Africa.”[18]

In 2015 he published Donker Stroom - Eugène Marais en die Anglo-Boereoorlog, a biography of the famous South African poet and naturalist Eugène Marais. It was awarded the KykNET-Rapport Prize (non-fiction),[19] as well as the Protea Boekhuis Prize[20] and the L.W. Hiemstra Prize by the South African Academy for Arts and Sciences.[21] It was also short-listed for the South African Literary Awards (non-fiction) award.[22] The judging panel of the KykNET-Rapport prize commented that “The status of Donker Stroom rests on imaginative and determined archival research, backed up by the excellent and seamless integration of secondary sources, careful and considered analyses, and the maintenance of an understated, credible authorial voice…As a political biography with a psychosocial approach this word will materially influence the manner in which the existing corpus is read.”[23] [Translated from Afrikaans.]

In 2019 Van der Merwe published Kansvatter: Die rustelose lewe van Ben Viljoen, a biography of gen. Ben Viljoen, an enigmatic Boer War general. It was awarded the KykNET-Rapport Book prize (non-fiction),[24] the ATKV Book prize (non-fiction),[25] as well as the Protea Boekhuis Prize by the South African Academy for Arts and Sciences.[26] It was also shortlisted for the South African Literary Awards (non-fiction) award.[27] The judging panel of the Protea Boekhuis Prize commented that “This biography contributes in illustrating the undercurrents in the ranks of Afrikaners and Afrikaner nationalism in the first few years after the South African War (1899-1902) and opens another window on this traumatic period in Afrikaner history.”[28]

Van der Merwe’s books have been shortlisted for various literary awards such as the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize,[29] the South African Literary Awards Creative Non-Fiction Award,[30] the UJ Literary Prize[31] and the M-Net Literary Prize.[32] He has also been awarded the following literary prizes: