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Louis Botha ( September 27 1862 – August 27 , 1919 ) was an Afrikaner and first Prime Minister of the modern South Africa n state, then called the Union Of South Africa . He became a member of the parliament of Transvaal in 1897 , representing the district of Vryheid . Two years later he was made a general in the Second Boer War , fighting with impressive capability at Colenso and Spioenkop . On the death of P. J. Joubert , he was made commander-in-chief of the Transvaal Boers, where he demonstrated his abilities again at Belfast-Dalmanutha . After the fall of Pretoria , he led a concentrated guerrilla campaign against the British together with Koos De La Rey and Christiaan De Wet . He later worked towards peace with the British, representing the Boers at the peace negotiations in 1902 . His war record made him prominent in the politics of Transvaal and he was a major player in the postwar reconstruction of that country, becoming Prime Minister of Transvaal on March 4 , 1907 . In 1911 , together with another Boer war hero, Jan Smuts , he formed the South African Party , or SAP. Widely viewed as too conciliatory with Britain, Botha faced revolts from within his own party and opposition from James Barry Munnik Hertzog 's National Party . When South Africa obtained Dominion status in 1910, Botha became the first Prime Minister of the Union Of South Africa . After the First World War started, he sent troops to take German South West Africa , a move unpopular among Boers, which provoked the Boer Revolt . At the end of the War he briefly led a British Empire Military Mission to Second Polish Republic during the Polish-Soviet War . He argued that the terms of the Versailles Treaty were too harsh on the Central Powers , but signed the treaty. |