Pik Botha and His Times
by Theresa Papenfus, English translation by Sandra Mills
(Litera, R399)
If you have read Tolstoy’s War and Peace or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, you will know that you could not complete your reading at a single sitting. Each had about 1 000 pages. However, you kept looking forward to the next time you could continue your reading as both books kept you spellbound.
Well, that is more or less what is going to happen to you once you start reading the 1 000-page omnibus, Pik Botha and His Times.
It is amazing how much information Theresa Papenfus has provided, and in such an interesting way that it makes you want to go on reading, page after page.
There is no doubt, no matter what your personal feelings are towards Botha, that he had a remarkable career, which is closely tied to the history of the rise and fall of the Nationalist government and party.
He started as a relatively junior employee in the Department of Foreign Affairs under Brand Fourie, only to rise to become Fourie’s superior as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He made his mark when he became part of the team that defended South Africa in the World Court at The Hague when Ethiopia and Liberia accused the country of oppressing the people of South West Africa under its mandatory supervision.
Don Sole wrote in his memoirs among others that “Mr Botha has developed a maturity and a sense of judgment which can only be described as outstanding in relation to his present rank and salary grading”.
The diligence and competence Botha displayed also attracted the attention of the senior members of the legal team. Even before the judgment, handed down on November 23, 1965, advocate David de Villiers, the leader of the team, and Buddie Muller wrote as follows to Fourie from The Hague: “We feel we owe it to the Department, as well as to Mr Botha, to place it on record that we and our colleagues have been increasingly impressed during the conduct of this case by his exceptional competence and qualities of leadership.”
Piet Cillie, editor of Die Burger, who also gave evidence before the World Court, wrote: “To spend time with that team was like being in a stable of well-bred, well-schooled and highly strung race horses. One of the most intense members of the team was Pik Botha. No one immersed himself more deeply in the case and became more emotional about it.”
The chapter devoted to Botha’s views on the Rubicon speech of Prime Minister PW Botha makes fascinating reading.
Pik Botha, Von Hirschberg and Louis Nel had provided a draft for the Prime Minister.
With reference to their inclusion of the crossing of the Rubicon, Pik said: “If PW decided to cross the Rubicon, it would automatically mean the end of apartheid and the old South Africa.”
Papenfus notes that if the Rubicon speech had damaged PW Botha’s image, it spared Pik even less. With increased zeal his opponents held the credibility of the minister up for public debate.
Pik Botha had misled people again, was the cry.
“Exactly what happened about the Rubicon speech remains a mystery to me,” said Botha. “If you find out, come and tell me.”
He was not only a leading politician, but also a poet and even an actor. He took the role of Teiresius, the prophet, in Sophocles’ classical and moving play Oedipus Rex.
Hermien Domisse encouraged him to take the part and Johan de Meeste, the well-known director, who came from the Netherlands to direct the play after listening to Botha’s audition, said he would make a perfect prophet.
Papenfus (nee Schabort), worked for Beeld in Pretoria as a reporter. She then became a freelance journalist and later an editor with the publishers JL van Schaik. In 2000 she started her own publishing business, Litera Publication.
This is certainly one of the most fascinating biographies written by a South African writer concerning a South African politician, and can be highly recommended.