Pik Botha and the Gold City Dixies

By Marinus te Water Naude

In translation

Since many of the younger members of the Department were only born in the Sixties and Seventies something about an earlier time may be of interest to them.

In the early Sixties Minister Botha was a Second Secretary. The younger members of the time heard that his promotion was delayed because he had not passed the required French course. He had by then returned from postings in Stockholm and Cologne and was someone new appointees were aware of.

According to the popular view his reputation rested mainly on the fact that earlier he as a “Rasie” leader at Tuks and he had, with odd exceptions, convinced the members of the music and dance group , the Gold City Dixies, to return from Sweden to South Africa. In fact his reputation was already based on his strong opinions which he was prepared to defend to anyone – and generally convince them,  his resourcefulness and unexpected insights. In addition he was able to work long and hard irrespective of the time day or night.

Other older colleagues from an entirely different (SAP) era now and again referred to his reports on his attempts to convince the Dixies with a mixture of repudiation but also lack of understanding of his way of doing things. On one occasion a few cadets dug up one of these reports (everything was in hard copy in those days, neatly typed by an older generation of foreign assistants who were almost all strict and very strict and reprimanding to cadets.

The Dixies were at a hotel somewhere in the forests considering their situation and the minister-to-be in his report wring of his exceptional attempt to convince them, wrote a sentence which read along these lines: “The engine purrs reassuringly like the Mercedes, turn after turn through the everlasting Swedish pine forest climbing up the mountainside.” In his student days short stories were published in the Huisgenoot magazine under the name Pik Botha.

In the mid-Sixties the Department co-ordinated the reply of the government in the SWA case before the World Court. The team of advocates drafted the texts, while a team of typists, researchers, proofreaders, copy-makers and others under the leadership of Mr Botha prepared the texts for the printers. This went on for weeks and months with many hours of overtime. He already knew how to bind together a group of faithful workers and his teams were always prepared to do more. Some of the older women brought him coffee etc at the slightest cough or sign from him. Everyone hung on his every words when he delivered long orations at teatimes on some aspect of the case or told anecdotes about anything or everything.

He loved the veld and going hunting if he got the chance. There were dedicated audiences including the advocates for these tales. While hunting he had improbable experiences, among others that on occasion he encountered frogs as big as lambs. He considered shooting a specimen as proof, but the frog stared at him so threateningly and reproachfully with his saucer eyes that he decided to lower his gun…

With these sessions and show of interest he kept the morale of his co-workers high and succeeded in getting the best from all of them. However, after weeks of overtime, despondency and a sense of unreality as a result of pure exhaustion began to affect the production team.

At this time rumours of a ghost in the bell tower of East Wing of the Union Buildings re-emerged. This caused a certain anxiety among the ladies especially. The rumour just would not die. Some simply dismissed it as rubbish, but especially after dignified members of the legal team a week or so later also claimed to have heard something in the early hours of the morning doubts began to grow.
Mr Botha’s interest was also aroused.

To bring an end to the rumours he arranged that all gathered at the windows of the West East Wing of the Union Buildings facing the Amphitheatre on a moonless Saturday night at midnight. By eleven o’clock only the most committed were still working and by twelve midnight the tension was really high. And would you believe it, when some began to think there was no truth in the rumour, in the dark silence a shadowy figure was noticed below the bell tower.

Later it was visible on the stoep opposite from time to time. It then moved with a strange movement towards the copula between the fish ponds.  Some ladies screamed uncontrollably and fainted when the ever level-headed David Tothill claimed that he recognised the “simian movements” of Advocate John Viall under a sheet. The excitement and reflections had a remarkable effect on the team to make them feel they had been on holiday for a week or more. Mr Botha who carefully planted the rumours over a period and planned the phenomenon with a few co-workers, could not hide his satisfaction and pleasure entirely.

The long working hours also caused some members of the team to experience a variety of problems as a result of family circumstances, cadets with examinations, etc. Then he was prepared to go out of his way to help them. In turn his team were prepared to walk on fire for him. Eventually he went to the World Court in The Hague as full member of the legal team.