Burgers, Thomas François (1834-1881)

South African president of Transvaal. He was a native of Cape Colony and minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. He was elected president by the Boers in 1872, during one of the most critical periods of the region's history. Paul Kruger systematically opposed Burgers's policy, with the result that the Boers refused to pay taxes, and entered into warfare with Secocoeni, a native chief. Transvaal was also menaced by the Zulus; at this crisis Burgers was compelled to resign, and the annexation of Transvaal was formally declared in 1877.