Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer, David Pratt in Johannesburg.

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a Dutch-born South African politician, academic, and newspaper editor who served as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966.

The prime minister of South Africa was the head of government in South Africa between 1910 and 1984.

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population. Under this minoritarian system, white citizens held the highest status, followed by Indians, Coloureds and black Africans, in that order. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality.

David Beresford Pratt was a British-South African businessman, farmer, and anti-apartheid activist. He was a wealthy liberal who was deeply upset over black poverty and racial segregation and spoke out against apartheid. Outraged by the Sharpeville massacre, Pratt tried to assassinate South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, shooting him twice. Verwoerd survived, but was killed six years later by Dimitri Tsafendas.

Johannesburg is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alone and over 14.8 million in the urban agglomeration, it is classified as a megacity and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, and seat of the country's highest court, the Constitutional Court. The city is located within the mineral-rich Witwatersrand hills, the epicentre of the international mineral and gold trade. The richest city in Africa by GDP and private wealth, Johannesburg functions as the economic capital of South Africa and is home to the continent's largest stock exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.