The origins of the Order of Good Hope (Part 2)

We continues with our series on the Order of Good Hope:

SOUTH AFRICA

The Order of Good Hope

Deon Fourie

Professor in Strategic Studies (Retd)

and Professor Extraordinarius

of the

University of South Africa

Department of Political Sciences

PO Box 392

Pretoria

0003 South Africa

Despite the obvious need for the institution of civil honours, some thirty years passed after the 1938 proposal before the matter attracted serious attention.  Rules for the acceptance of foreign honours, first the British Foreign Office's rules and then South African rules, published in December, 1963, continued to bar the use of honours as diplomatic gestures.[i]   It is difficult to trace the exact course of subsequent events.  Discussions were not recorded.  However, at last on 4 September, 1969, there was a minute from the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to members of an Interdepartmental Committee on Honours and Decorations - itself an indication of a move towards instituting civilian honours.  This minute referred to a discussion on the need for an award for foreigners, such as diplomats, and the question of a separate honour for distinguished service either for 'non-citizens' or to 'citizens and non-citizens'.[ii]  The possibility of a bravery award was mentioned in passing.   Another year was to pass before the next step appeared on the file.

A Cabinet memorandum in 1970 from the Department raised the question of how to honour heads of state, diplomats and meritorious foreigners.  A rather poorly conceived Decoration for Meritorious Service was instituted in 1970.  However, the Interdepartmental Committee recommended a special honour for foreigners, rather than the award of the DMS.  The DMS was a rather large and ponderous decoration in one class rather than as a flexible order in five classes.  At last, late in 1970, Ambassador Roy H Coaton submitted an extensive and well-reasoned memorandum in response to a request to explore the principles and process of instituting an honour for foreigners.[iii]    Unlike the 1952 military honours instituted at the instance of the Minister of Defence, FC Erasmus, who was obsessed with nationalist symbolism, there was no apparent political or ideological motive involved.  Explaining that the Cabinet had decided on 18 May, 1970, to institute an honour Afor conferment on foreigners “the paper argues that since reciprocity was important and orders played a large part in foreign honours Awe have no option but to project our decoration from the pattern of an ‘order and so to designate it.” [iv]

It referred to earlier proposals and described the attitudes to accepting foreign honours in the Transvaal and Orange Free State republics.  Some comparative data on orders accorded both to citizens and foreigners was drawn from a variety of countries, mainly South American, including Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Peru, Venezuela, and also from Egypt, Iceland, Iran, Lebanon, and Pakistan.  Various names were considered for the proposed honour, but because they duplicated existing military honours or foreign orders, the choice fell on the Order of Good Hope.  Coaton, whose suggestion it seems to have been, was of the opinion that ‘it translates well and sounds good in any language.’  

Quite remarkably, Roy Coaton’s conception of the order was adopted almost in its entirety, but for a small change to the pattern of the riband for the lowest classes of the order.  It was left to him to pilot the order through its various steps along the path of detailed design, manufacture of a prototype of the collar and of ribands, design and printing of the diplomas to accompany investiture, and the approaches to the Tender Board.  Although the work was commenced in November, 1970, it was not until February, 1973, that the process was completed and the Warrant published.[v]

The Order was eventually instituted for the admission of foreign civilians and members of armed forces who had distinguished themselves by their services in promoting South Africa's international rela­tions and who had earned the respect and gratitude of South Africa.[vi]   This type of order, intended for ceremonial and diplomatic use, is not common.  The majority of countries seem to prefer to make foreigners honorary or associate members of their various orders.  The concept of a special order seems to be seen as having the advantage of ensuring that the motives for awarding honours to one=s own citizens do not take on a political colour.   

Perhaps, also, honours do not appear to be cheapened by the admission of foreign political figures where merit for the award may not be absolutely clear.   In 1978 the Department of Defence decided to consider instituting a similar honour since they found the Department of Foreign Affairs=s procedures too slow.  The concept of a special honour was rejected, however.   In a memorandum , Lieutenant General H deV du Toit, the Chief of Staff of Intelligence, whose brief included military foreign relations, wrote that an honour would have “... more value for a recipient if he knows he is receiving an existing order and not simply something for foreigners ... “.  

He went on that the existing Order of the Star of South Africa, then a military order of two classes for officers of general’s rank would be  ‘... appropriate to link the holder to South Africa’.[vii]    Accordingly, the advice the Department of Defence tendered to the State President was that the OSSA become an order with a parallel civilian division which would also be open to foreign military personnel. [viii]

Structure of the Order of Good Hope

The structure adopted for the Order of Good Hope was similar to that of most modern orders.  The office bearers of the Order were the State President as Grand Master of the Order, the Minister of Foreign Affairs as Grand Chancellor and Depositary of the Order, and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs as Secretary of the Order and Keeper of the Register, a post originally meant for the Chief of Protocol.

In 1985, a Committee of Inquiry into orders and decorations, chaired by Supreme Court Judge Victor Hiemstra, submitted a report to the State President.  A result of its recommendations was that orders were placed under the control of an Advisory Committee of Orders.  The Secretary-General of the President's Office was now Chancellor of the Chancery of Orders and the State President became the Patron of the Order and no longer Grand Master.  The reintroduction of the restriction to foreign citizens for the Order of Good Hope was also included in the changes.  The strange custom of adding in brackets the words AGold@ and ASilver@ after the titles Grand Cross and Grand Officer was also introduced.  Indeed, this usage as well as others in the 1988 Warrant, such as a provision for posthumous awards and references to the classes as 'orders', indicated a complete misunderstanding of orders - despite the work of the Hiemstra Committee and the existence of a Chancery. [ix]

The Order was initially organized in four classes with a Special Class or Grand Collar, preceding and apart from the four classes of Grand Cross, Grand Officer, Commander and Officer.  It was reserved for heads of state and in special cases for heads of gov­ernment.  Coaton had proposed the structure "... in any event eschewing the appellation >knight= (very frequently encountered even in modern orders) as quite out of keeping with our South African tradition.@  Conditions for admission to the various classes were narrowly defined to reflect the rank or official status of the recipient.  The proposed qualifications for admission to the order retained almost unchanged as they were in the 1973 Warrant, but the 1987 Warrant abolished the Special Class and provided for the addition of the fifth class of Member. 

On assumption of the office of Grand Master by the State President, it was deemed that he was awarded the Special Class. After its abolition in 1987 heads of state and, in special cases, heads of government qualified for the First Class i.e., Grand Cross. For each class particular categories of merit were prescribed, in rather inflexible and unnecessary detail – again revealing a misapprehension of the character of honours and the traditional intentions behind their organization.  Thus, those considered to have performed 'excellent meritorious' (sic) service in the interests of South Africa could also be appointed to this class.  Coaton=s original formulations seemed more apt and less tortuous.

The Second Class, or Grand Officer, was open to heads of government, ministers, supreme court judges, presidents of legislative bodies, secretaries of state, ambassadors extraordinary and plenipo­tentiary, commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and other func­tionaries and persons of comparable rank and station.  Others, regarded as having rendered outstanding meritorious service in the interests of South Africa, could also be appointed to this class.  Members of legislative bodies, envoys extraordi­nary and ministers plenipotentiary, general officers of the armed forces other than commanders-­in-chief, other functionaries and persons of comparable rank and station and also those who had rendered exceptionally meritorious service could qualify for the Third Class, that of Commander.  Chargés d=affaires, consuls general, colonels and lieutenant-colonels or equivalent ranks, other funct­ionaries and persons of comparable rank and station and persons who had rendered meritorious service could be admitted to the Fourth Class, that of Officer.  Finally, the Fifth Class, or that of Member, was open to secretaries of diplomatic missions, consuls, lower ranking officers of the armed forces and other officials or persons of comparable rank and station and to persons who have rendered exceptional service in the interests of the Republic. [x]

---

[i] 'Government Notice No. 2004' of the 27 December, 1963, entitled >Rules for the Acceptance and Wearing of Foreign Awards of Honour by South African Citizens=, stipulated that A2.  (b) Permission will not be granted to - (i) South African diplomatic, consular and other representatives abroad when leaving their stations on transfer or final retirement; and (ii) officers of the State visiting foreign countries officially or otherwise.@ Government Gazette, No.684 of 27 December, 1963. These provisions were omitted from the Rules from 1980 onwards. Government Gazette, No.7267 of 24 October, 1980, and Government Gazette, No.10106 of 28 February, 1986 – which has never been brought up to date.

[ii] The minute dated 4 September, 1969, appears on 113/35/4, volume 1.  The members of the Committee were the Secretaries of the Prime Minister's Office, the Interior, Justice, and Cultural Affairs, as well as the Commandant-General of the Defence Force and the Commissioner of Police.

[iii] Memorandum AProposed South African Decoration for Citizens of Foreign Countries@, 113/35/4 dated 25 November, 1970.  There is reference in this memorandum to Cabinet Memoranda P.M. 20/35-20/3-20/18-20/7 dated 26 March, 1963, and MB C2 (38) 10A of 30 September, 1969 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which raised question of how to honour heads of state, diplomats and meritorious foreigners.  A minute by CH Taljaard, Chief of Protocol, to the Interdepartmental Committee emphasized that the author of the paper had devoted 'much study' to the question.113/35/4PRO.

[iv] Originally based on the concept of devout knights formed as brotherhoods of soldier-monks during the Crusades, orders, when constituted according to custom, are associations of members organised hierarchically.  After the Crusades, the concept was secularised into military and ceremonial orders, to which members were admitted for meritorious conduct in war or in service to the monarch, e.g., the Spanish Order of Calatrava established in 1158, and the British Most Noble Order of the Garter founded in 1348.  While the older orders consisted of only one class, Napoleon's Ordre de la Légion d=Honneur (instituted on 29 Floréal of the Year X of the Revolution, that is, 19 May 1802) established the concept of five classes or ranks through which members could be promoted for continuing merit.  This has been followed widely by other countries.  Rather than being mere badges, the honour they bestow is that of admission to one of the classes or ranks of rather exclusive associations - which have fewer members higher in the hierarchy.  See Ackermann, GA, Ordensbuch - sämtlicher in Europa blühender und erloschener Orden und Ehrenzeichen, Reprint-Verlag Leipzig, Leipzig, n.d. (1855); Administration des Monnaies et Medailles, Décorations Officielles Françaises, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1956; Hieronymussen, P Orders, Medals and Decorations of Britain and Europe, Blandford Press, London, 1975.

[v] Memorandum dated 3 December, 1970, on the design.  Cabinet Memorandum sent in February, 1971, to all Ministers and another of 10 February, requested Cabinet approval, MB5/1/1 (C2) (44).   A letter to the Mint, on 4 March 1971, warned of the demands the insignia would set and resulted in manufacturing simplification.  On 5 March, 1971 quotations for ribands were requested from the well-known British manufacturer, Toye & Co.  A note to the Chief of Protocol of 8 March, 1971, asked for the manufacture of a Register.  The Warrant, drafted by Coaton, was not sent to the Interdepartmental Committee until 8 June.  Only the Defence Force responded, enquiring about the absence of provisions for presenting examples of insignia to museums, the wearing of insignia by women, the cancellation of appointments, and for the cessation of wearing the insignia of lower classes upon promotion within the order.  They expressed a preference for the more standard five classes, with the fifth class of Member.  Finally, they enquired about the absence of provision for what was wrongly called 'post-nominal titles', more correctly 'post-nominal abbreviations'.  To the latter enquiry Taljaard simply replied that the Order would not be associated with titles although post-nominal abbreviations had originally been contemplated.  Tender Board approval was requested on 17 September, 1971 and Treasury authority to establish a new item under Sub-head AE@  was requested on 7 October, 1971.  The Language Services Bureau was sent the Warrant on the 23 September.

[vi] Cabinet Minute No.275 dated 22 February, 1973, asked for an order to be instituted for Aforeigners who had distinguished themselves in the mutual advancement of international relations between the countries they represented and South Africa@.  File 113/35/4 (32).>Warrant relating to the Order of Good Hope=, No.R311 dated 2 March, 1973, Government Gazette, No. 3793 of 2 March, 1973.  On 23 March, 1973, the Secretary sent a note verbale to all heads of foreign missions in Pretoria enclosing a copy of the Government Gazette of the 2 March.  See also Warrant dated 18 December, 1986, Government Gazette, No.10574, vol. 259, dated 9 January, 1987.

[vii] Minute HSP (2) 104/13/1/14 of the 27 September, 1978.

[viii] Designs were forwarded by Cabinet Minute to the State President, 17 October 1978.  The Warrant Ato institute a civilian section [sic] of the Order of the Star of South Africa@, signed by the Minister of Defence and the State President, BJ Vorster, was published in Government Gazette No. 6193 dated 20 October 1978. Changes to the metals of the badges and the riband for the civilian division indicated differences much the same as the Order of the British Empire.  See Recommendation by General MA deM Malan, Chief of the SA Defence Force, in Minute 12/Oct/78, in GP6CSP Box 945 104/13/1/14 Award of SA Orders, Decorations and Medals to Foreigners, and Verslag: Komitee van Ondersoek na Dekorasies en Medaljes in die SAW, (ie, 'Report: Committee of Enquiry into Decorations and Medals in the SADF') Letter 103 in MV/MS/42/2 Vol 1, Box 44 of MVB (PW Botha Series). 'State President' was the title of the head of state of the South African Republic (1860-1902). From 1994 the South African head of State has been called the President. 

[ix] Warrant dated 5 October, 1988, in Government Gazette, No. 11547, Vol. 280, dated 21 October, 1988.  The changes did not meet with the Director-General's unqualified approval according to Minute 113/35/4 of 11 August, 1994 addressed to the Chancellor of Orders. The usage of adding the metal to the designation persists with the orders instituted since 2003, and now includes 'platinum' for the highest class of one order.

[x] The Warrant in the Government Gazette, Vol 280 no.11547 dated 21 October, 1988, repeated the 1973 Warrant and amended the classes to Class 1, Grand Cross (Gold); Class 2, Grand Officer (Silver); Class 3, Commander; class 4, Officers, and class 5, that of Member.

The Order of Good Hope (Part 1)

SOUTH AFRICA

The Order of Good Hope

Deon Fourie

Professor in Strategic Studies (Retd)

and Professor Extraordinarius

of the

University of South Africa

Department of Political Sciences

PO Box 392

Pretoria

0003 South Africa

Abstract  

Past South African governments already felt the need for honours as instruments of diplomacy in the 1930s, but only instituted the Order of Good Hope in 1973.  Inherited British attitudes to honours, the cessation in 1925 of the award of honours bearing titles, and long periods in which civilian honours were not awarded contributed to its frugal use.  Wishing to recognize foreign assistance to the liberation movements, from 1994 President Mandela frequently put the Order to use, freely awarding leaders of foreign governments.  However, restraint returned after the initial surge.  Since instituting new orders in 2003, President Mbeki has emphasised substantial merit as the key to admission.

The Order of Good Hope^[i]

 “Yes, I should have given more praise”. The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon, became Commander-in-Chief and later Prime Minister of Great Britain, when asked whether there was anything in his life that he could have done better.

Introduction

In the high drama that surrounds the professions of arms and of diplomacy many features decide the significance of honours in the sociology of the two callings.  Symbolism, though secondary to their main functions, plays an important role.  Ceremony, formal compliments like guards of honour and gun salutes, the display of flags and coats of arms or badges and conferring honours are all important attributes of their professional life.  They share particular values about symbolism, but the variations in emphasis have special pragmatic significance for each. Especially regarding honours, some critical differences distinguish the profession of arms from the profession of diplomacy.

Military values determine that compliments, flags and colours, ceremony and honours should encourage the armed forces to be courageous, determined and steadfast and self-sacrificial.   Honours in particular are meant to recognise and express the nation's gratitude for courage, for leadership, for devotion to duty and for merit beyond the call of duty.  Even when it comes to recognising courage, honours are often conferred on military personnel quite sparsely.  For example, since its institution in 1855, the Victoria Cross has been awarded for signal gallantry in the face of an enemy only 1356 times (including Iraq and Afghanistan 2003).  Moreover, increasingly since the Second World War it has been awarded posthumously.  Admittedly not all honours for bravery have been awarded so sparingly - but then circumstances, politics and changed values often influence awards radically.^[ii]

Although diplomats and soldiers see themselves very differently, diplomats do have so much to do with war - its avoidance, its prevention, its termination, its causes and its occurrence - that an inextricable connection remains.  For diplomats merit and devotion to duty also require recognition and encouragement although the emphasis is not on physical courage and the sacrifice of life.  For example, it is almost entirely unknown for honours to be conferred posthumously on diplomats. ^[iii]

On the other hand, together with ceremonial and paying formal compliments, the bestowal of honours is used frequently for improving relations between governments and for encouraging the friendship and favour of foreigners.  In the pursuit of favour and political affection, some European governments annually generously bestow the junior classes of one or other appropriate order on foreigners who have taught their language and culture, promoted their trade, advanced political relations and in other ways benefited the interests of countries making the awards.

The usage as instruments of diplomacy immediately raises the question of how prudently, perhaps frugally, or how extravagantly, honours should be used for establishing or cementing relations with foreign governments or even securing the loyalty of their citizens.  The answers to the problem may be found in differing attitudes to honours and their differing importance in different countries.  The values of particular societies decide the importance of honours.   Different values in different countries are what make them significant, dignified, respected or merely unimportant adornments of no particular concern except perhaps to trophy hunters.  In some countries, perhaps more especially in the old monarchies, though not only there, where honours are seen as flowing from heads of state for significant acts, they are valued as signs of exclusive recognition.  In others where they are passed out freely by subordinate politicians or officials they are no more than cheap rewards.

Perhaps when the right to award honours was the prerogative of the monarchs to do with as freely they pleased it was easier to give them to foreigners.  A well-known exception to the casual disposal of honours was that of the Czarist Order of St George.   It was so strictly controlled so that the last four Czars allowed themselves to become members only after having served in campaigns as the regulations required of ordinary Russians.^[iv]   Although the Royal prerogative became attenuated in Britain in the nineteenth century as cabinet government was strengthened, the British monarchs retained some authority.  Lord Melbourne, referring to the right Queen Victoria retained to award membership of the Order of the Garter to her friends, once remarked A I like the Garter.  There is no damned merit about it.@^[v] 

Before General Charles De Gaulle’s presidency, twentieth century France had many orders and opened their ranks rather lavishly.  De Gaulle abolished fourteen orders and made contemporary France more circumspect about granting honours.  Perhaps republics in general are more nationalistic and jealous of extending the symbols of citizenship to foreigners.  Perhaps there is a sense in modern democracies that honours should be awarded for bravery or eminent devotion to duty or merit rather than for diplomatic visits or even for lengthy periods of diplomatic representation abroad.  Although a kingdom with a rather unnecessarily large number of honours available for distribution (about 2 000 are awarded each year), Britain has been very chary about diplomatic honours.  During the First World War, King George V was frequently irritated by his generals wearing >foreign baubles=, e.g., honours from France, Belgium and other Allies.  Strictly interpreted, wearing foreign honours implied a tacit transfer or, at the least, a division of allegiance.  So the rule against accepting and wearing them continued to be firmly applied for British subjects, especially those holding official appointments.  Only in the course of state visits and during the two World Wars have British honours been 'exchanged' for foreign honours.  Diplomats are not given honours as a matter of course on ending a term of representation at the Court of St James.

South Africa herself went through the process of having to solve the problem of what to do about recognizing foreign friendship and merit by way of the award of honours.  As a dominion with imprecise status in the British Empire from 1910 and, then from 1934, as a clearly independent dominion, i.e., a kingdom in the Commonwealth, the South African government followed the British practice of not recommending the award of honours to diplomats on their departure after a term of accreditation to Pretoria.^[vi]  South African diplomats were not permitted to accept and wear foreign honours almost automatically awarded on departure from some foreign stations. 

Honours were not exchanged during the few state visits to South Africa between 1910 and 1961 because the head of state was the British sovereign, not the Governor-General.  The visit of the British Royal Family in 1947 was indeed marked by the admission to the Royal Victorian Order of several officials and officers who had been involved in the arrangements.^[vii]  Of course, King George VI was not on a foreign visit, but visiting one of his realms.  The investiture of soldiers at the South African Military College and also the King’s investiture of Field Marshal JC Smuts, the Prime Minister, as one of the  twenty-four members of the Order of Merit, were for services during the Second World War.^[viii]  Besides, all of those invested or decorated were British subjects.  Thus the King’s actions still accorded with the principles pertaining to officials of other states since he was not a foreign head of state but the King of South Africa.

When the President of Portugal visited South Africa in 1956, and the Governor-General visited Portugal (and Spain) soon afterwards, no exchange of honours took place.  The South African government would have had to ask the Queen to bestow British honours on the Portuguese and Spanish since that was all that was available.  There were no exclusively South African honours appropriate to the occasion.  There may have been no problem in principle in awarding imperial honours as far as Queen Elizabeth II was concerned.  Certainly, there were enough British orders to mark Portuguese state visits to and from several Commonwealth countries.  However, for the Governor-General to invest the foreign visitors with, say, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the Queen=s name would, perhaps, not have gone down very well at the party congresses of the National Party government, committed to creating a republic.^[ix]

It was a droll comment on political principle that the South African medal lists reveal that some politicians, irrespective of their professed republican sentiments, accepted the King George V Jubilee Medal (1935), the Coronation Medal awarded by King George VI in 1937 and the Coronation Medal awarded by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.^[x]   The irony of this was emphasized by the fact that both Dr DF Malan’s successor as Prime Minister, JG Strijdom, and the Foreign Minister, EH Louw, took care never to wear the British medals both had earned serving as soldiers in 1914-1915 in the campaign in German South West Africa (Namibia) in the First World War.  Nor did they accept the Coronation or the Coronation Jubilee Medals.  As far as diplomats were concerned, only a few senior officers were recipients of the Coronation or Coronation Jubilee Medals awarded to officials of Commonwealth countries.^[xi]    Even that was relatively rare since so few were allocated.  Besides, there were still not many senior South African diplomats to receive them when few missions existed in the 1950s.

After South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961, diplomats who had been stationed in countries where the practice of decorating departing diplomats was customary often complained of being embarrassed by their inability to earn foreigners= friendship and a degree of loyalty to South Africa through the reciprocal award of honours.  Indeed, occasionally foreign ministries sometimes enquired officially why there was no South African reciprocity.  Moreover, all of the younger diplomats had cause to complain that only the older South Africans who had the Jubilee or Coronation Medals or perhaps decorations and medals for Second World War service, could wear decorations on ceremonial occasions.

The problem was not entirely new.  During the closing years of the South African Republic, President Paul Kruger had attempted to introduce an order - to be known either as ADe Orde van Verdienste der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (the Order of Merit of the South African Republic) or else as De Orde van de Gouden Adelaar (the Order of the Golden Eagle).  The order was intended for citizens of the South African Republic as well as for foreigners who had performed distinguished service to the Republic or to society in general.^[xii]  Among other considerations, Kruger probably was himself concerned that he was unable to respond to foreign honours despite his having been made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of various European orders - the Portuguese Ordem da Imaculada Conceição de Vila Viçosa (1884), the Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw (1890), the Prussian Rote-Adler-Orden (1893), the Belgian Ordre de Léopold (1895) and the Monegasque Ordre de Saint-Charles the Holy (1900).  He was also made a Commander (1886) and in 1896 a Grand Officer of the French Ordre de la Légion d=Honneur.  However logical his reasons, the Volksraad defeated Kruger's proposal by the expedient of referring it to the Transvaal voters to comment upon by way of petitions, called memories, customarily used for sounding public opinion on policy.^[xiii]  The quality of responses was akin to that of modern television 'telephone-in' programmes.^[xiv]

Similar problems of reciprocity were considered in 1938, when the office of the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa prepared a proposal for an Order of Merit with a view to recognizing Adistinguished service to country and people ” by South African citizens and foreigners.  Indeed, the proposal mentioned that ASouth Africa is continually embarrassed by the inability to reward or honour our citizens ... and ... foreigners.”^[xv]  It is not clear from files what became of the proposal.   It may have been overtaken by the events leading up to outbreak of war.  It is not unlikely that it failed to gain British official support.  At about the same time the chief British herald, Garter King of Arms, as Inspector of Regimental Colours, clearly a blissful political innocent, was expressing his disapproval of the introduction of a colour of a South African pattern to replace the British Great Union Flag (the Union Jack) as the King’s Colour for South African regiments.  His arguments that the Union Jack was 'the King's personal flag' took no account of the nationalism developing in the Dominions of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, as well as in South Africa, after their participation in the slaughter of the First World War.

            In 1961, when the Union became the Republic of South Africa outside the Commonwealth, the head of state still had no honours available for diplomatic purposes.  The military honours instituted in 1953 were open only to foreigners who were members of allied armed forces actually fighting alongside South African forces in military operations.^[xvi] On an official visit to Portugal in April 1967 the Minister of Defence had no means of responding to being made a Knight Grand Cross of the Ordem Militar de Christo.  Clearly the introduction of non-military honours was necessary.  Yet from 1961 each republican constitution made it clear that the President was the fount of honours with the prerogatives to institute and bestow honours, although the Constitution, 1996 seems less clear about the prerogative.^[xvii]

[i] Sincere thanks are due for help and advice from retired Ambassadors Jeremy B Shearar and Tom Wheeler and Mr CJ Muller, Archivist of the Department of Foreign Affairs, to Miss Louise Jooste, Director, and Mr Steve de Agrela, Archivist, Documentation Services, Department of Defence, and to other former members of the South African Foreign Service who gave valuable advice. 

[ii] The American Medal of Honor (1862), at first lavishly awarded, is now less freely awarded, with only one posthumous award during the campaign in Iraq (2003).  Total awards number 3,459 (plus nine to 'Unknown Soldiers' of various countries).  Initially sparingly granted, during the two World Wars the German Eiserne Kreuz (Iron Cross) instituted in 1813 for bravery was awarded to more than eight million soldiers.  Crook, M  The Evolution of the Victoria Cross, a Study in Administrative History, Midas Books, Tunbridge Wells, 1975, passim.  Hütte, WO Die Geschichte der Eisernen Kreuzes, Rheinishe Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität, Bonn, 1968, passim. Kerrigan, E, American Medals and Decorations, Mallard Press, New York, 1990; http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor.

[iii] One exception known to the writer was that of the South African ambassador, Archibald Gardner Dunn.  He did not offer his life in some venture that put him at risk but was abducted in El Salvador.  However, characteristically, the rather hard bitten ‘Eddie’ Dunn, a Second World War veteran of the SA Air Force, was overheard defiantly saying to his abductors as they tried to make him prisoner “You can go to hell!”  His fate remains unknown and the Grand Cross of the Order of Good Hope was conferred on him posthumously.

[iv] Werlich R Russian Orders, Decorations and Medals: Imperial Russia, the Provisional Government & the Soviet Union, Quaker Press, Washington, DC, 1968, p.10.

[v] De la Bere, Sir Ivan, The Queen=s Orders of Chivalry, Spring Books, London, 1964, p. 89.

[vi] In 1931 the Statute of Westminster made it clear that the Commonwealth Dominions were equal in status to the United Kingdom.  The British parliament could not legislate for South Africa and the legally separate Crown in South Africa was confirmed. The King of South Africa was represented by the Governor-General, no longer regarded as the agent of the British government. Statute of Westminster 1931. Act 22 & 23 Geo. V c. 4, December 11, 1931 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

[vii] For example, the Commissioner of the South African Police, Major-General RJ Palmer, DSO, was appointed to the Royal Victorian Order, as were other police officers, for the police's role in the security of the Royal Family.  The Royal Victorian Order is conferred as the Monarch chooses and it is not controlled by the British Prime Minister's office.

[viii] The Order of Merit, although of very high precedence, was a British order with no rank or title. Since the South African Parliament's request in 1925 to the Monarch not to grant titles to South Africans resident in South Africa, the OM was very appropriate for granting the highest honour to South Africans.  Hence, the admission of President Nelson Mandela to the OM was almost inevitable.  When South Africa became a republic, admission to orders bearing titles was no longer a problem.  Since only associate membership of orders is granted to persons not subjects of the Monarch, the titles are not used. Hieronymussen, P, Orders, Medals and Decorations of Britain and Europe, Blandford Press, London, 1975.

[ix] During the Colonial and Dominion periods, the only 'South African' honours were a limited range of colonial versions of British military medals for bravery and merit for non-commissioned officers and men and long service medals.  In 1953, Royal Warrants (i.e., instruments equivalent to Executive Orders under the Monarch's signature) for a series of military decorations and medals for bravery, merit, and long service were approved by Queen Elizabeth II.  This was one of a variety of steps by the Minister of Defence, FC Erasmus, to divorce the Defence Force from any British complexion.  Honours were the head of state=s prerogative and since 1960 this has been expressly mentioned in the republican constitutions.

[x] A random selection of 'republican' politicians who applied for the medal in 1953, included Avril Malan, the governing party's Leader of the House of Assembly, Nicolaas Diedericks (later a Minister and then President), JF Naudé (Minister of Finance), Dr DF Malan (Prime Minister) and Dr AL Geyer, the High Commissioner in London during the Coronation – both of whom attended the Coronation.  Owen, CR, The South African Medal Role of the 1935 Jubilee Medal, 1937 Coronation Medal, 1953 Coronation Medal, Chimperie Press, Benoni, 1982, passim.

[xi] Examples of senior diplomats listed by Owen as recipients of the 1953 Coronation Medal were GP Jooste High Commissioner in London from April 1954 and later head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassadors Anthony Hamilton and Robert Kirsten and also CH Torrance a senior Treasury official who was head of administration at South Africa House, London.  Owen, op. cit., passim.

[xii] The Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic), also known as the Transvaal, was the official title of the republic established in the interior of South Africa, between the Vaal and the Limpopo Rivers, in the mid-nineteenth century by Cape Boer trekkers. It existed until annexed at the end of the Anglo-Boer War on 31 May 1902.

[xiii] Similar precedents were relied on in later years by Ambassador RH Coaton to sustain an argument for an order.  He mentioned that in his brief presidency the tragic figure President Thomas Burgers became a Knight of the Portuguese Ordem Militar da Torre e Espada, a Knight Grand Cross of the Belgian Ordre de Léopold and of the Orde de Nederlanse Leeuw.  In the Orange Free State, President Jan Brand was admitted to the Portuguese Ordem Militar de Christo (1876) and became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George  in 1883.  He was thereafter known as Sir John Brand.  Although born a British subject, he was president of a foreign state.  President Paul Kruger refused the GCMG because he believed he would have to use the title ‘Sir’.  Both presidents Reitz and Steyn of the OFS refused to be Knights Grand Cross of the Orde de Nederlandse Leeuw although no title was appended to that order.  Esterhuysen, M,  Gedenkpennings ter Ere van President SJP Kruger, Nasionale Kultuurhistoriese Museum, Pretoria, 1973, pp. 7 to 19.  On 18 May 2000 President Thabo Mbeki was admitted to the Order of Michael and St George as an honorary Knight Grand Cross and did not have to call himself Sir Thabo.

[xiv] Notulen van den Eersten Volksraad der ZA Republiek, 1894, Artikel 204, ‘Voorstel van Wet op het instellen eener Ridderorde voor de Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek’, pp. 311-312, and Artikel 719.  In her biography of WJ Leyds, Kruger's State Secretary, LE van Niekerk unquestioningly accepts the allegations by the editor of the Pretoria newspaper Land en Volk, Jan Cilliers, who worked to scupper the institution of an order.  Cilliers opposed Kruger's presidency, particularly for his use of young intellectuals from the Netherlands as senior officials.  In a leading article he maliciously accused Kruger of intending to introduce the titles of duke, count, marques and the like. See 'Voorstel van Wet op het Instellen van een Adelstand voor de ZAR',(ie 'Bill to Introduce Nobility in the ZAR'), Land en Volk, 6 September 1894.)  There were no such provisions in the Bill.  See the minutes of the Volksraad.  The article was clearly an attempt to ridicule Leyds, another one of Kruger’s young Hollanders appointed as State Secretary and only 35 years old to boot.  Van Niekerk, LE  Kruger se Regterhand - Biografie van Dr WJ Leyds, JL van Schaik, Pretoria, 1985, pp.184 -185.

[xv] Referred to in a memorandum 'Proposed South African Decoration for Citizens of Foreign Countries', 113/35/4 dated 25 November 1970, signed by RH Coaton.

[xvi] See Alexander, EGM et al.  South African Orders, Decorations and Medals, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 1986, for a full description of the honours eventually adopted.  One of the Royal Warrants for eleven decorations and medals instituted in 1953 by the new Queen Elizabeth II, on the advice of her South African government continued in force until the introduction by President Mbeki of new decorations and medals in 2003.  See 'President's Minute No. 243' and attached Presidential Warrants dated 16 April 2003, Government Gazette, No. 25213 dated 25 July 2003.  The Governor-General, as the Queen=s representative had no authority to institute honours, the prerogative solely of the Monarch.   

[xvii] The various provisions in the South African constitutions only date from the institution of the republic, since the prerogatives were previously the Monarch's (the King or the Queen of South Africa), not the Governor-General's.  Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1961 and the Constitution Act of 1983. Section 84(2)(k) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No. 108 of 1996) now prevails.

Reflections on the South West Africa court case ...

                                                

Patrys Smith, Paraguay

Meintjeskop Koerier

Volume II. 1994

Dit was 'n Julie-oggend kwartoor nege toe Stoney my roep en se:  “Rapporteer by kamer 109 nee, 109A, daar by Pik Botha.  Hulle wil meer hulp he. Daar waar 'n saak gemaak word oor Suidwes-Afrika.  Dit was die jare van Memories en Teen-memories.                                                

Ons kon skaars tyd vind vir stories.  Kort voor lank was dit Pikkewyn, Koedoe, Patrys en Kittie, met Marinus, Hein, Mejuffrou Stolte en Kie.  As ek se "Pik", is dit nie aan gebrek aan respek vir 'n Minister,  maar met Pik die Kollega, is die herinneringe soos gister. 

Ek saI die rymelary maar daar laat, Dit was die jaar 1964. As "n mens terugdink is daar so baie wat 'n mens kan neerstip. Geld was nie volop nie, vera! nie na die terugkoms van 'n eerste pos nie. Die van ons wat gerook  het, het Pik se voorbeeld gevolg en hoofsaaklik pyp gerook met 'n pyp soos Pik. (Ek het nou nog die ou grote erens).

Nuwe skoene "met bree ronde punte sodat jy jou tone , daarin kan rondrol" en nuwe klere, moes wag totdat'n voorskot op "S+T" getrek kon word - mits jy buiteland toe reis. (Kleretoetalae was net vir verplaasdes bestem soos nou weer die gevaI is).

Wanneer 'n mens terugdink, kom die herinneringe baie vinnig die een na die ander, oa hoe Pik die vertrek van die laaste vliegtuig na Kaapstad op 'n Sondagaand " in opdrag van Eerste Minister Verwoerd" laat vertraag het. Die rede? 

Die konsepstukke moes Kaap toe waar die enigste drukkers was wat volgens Staatskontrak die pleitstukke mag druk. Alles het streng volgens skedule gewerk en die "drukker" se personeel het daarvoor  gewag. Eintlik was dit nie in opdrag van Dr Verwoerd nie - Pik bet aan die lughawe se verkeershoof gese dat as by nie die vlug wi1 "terughou" nie, hy net die "volgende nommer moet skakel en vir Dr Verwoerd vra". Hy kan dan aan Dr Verwoerd sy redes vir sy sluit verskaf.

Onnodig om te se, Pik bet sy sin gekry. Die stukke is deur die venster aan die kaptein gegee op die aanloopbaan by Jan Smutslughawe.

Later dieselfde week - Vrydagmiddag - het ons 'n boek dringend benodig om 'n aanhaling wat die advokate in die pleitstukke gebruik het vir korrektheid na te gaan. Die boek was nerens in Pretoria beskikbaar nie. Die proewe moes nog daardie aand Kaap-toe. Einde ten laaste word 'n eksemplaar by Wits se biblioteek opgespoor. 

Dit was tien voor vier, vakansietyd en die bib sluit om vieruur vir die naweek. Pik reel toe dat die Blitspatrollie in Johannesburg die boek gaan afhaal. Een van ons sou dit later by hulle kom kry. Pik reel voorts dat dieselfde student wat die vorige Sondagaand na Jan Smutslughawe moes jaag dit gaan haal. 

"En jy sorg dat jy binne een uur terug is anders verkla ek jou by Dr Verwoerd!" Daardie dae was die snelweg tussen Johannesburg en Pretoria nog nie klaar gebou nie. Die jongman was nietemin tot almal se verbasing binne die bestek van een uur terug. Hy verduidelik toe dat hulle soms aan die verkeerde kant motors verbygesteek het. 

By die ingang van Johannesburg is die staatsmotor vir 'n spoedoortreding voorgekeer. Hy het toe in allerhaas, nadat hy homself met 'n tuisgemaakte dubbelfolio "identiteitskaart" met die woorde "OP AMPTELIKE DIENS - Departement van Buitelandse Sake" daarop bekendgestel het, verduidelik dat hy 'n boek moes gaan haal by die blitspattollie "In opdrag van Dr Verwoerd" en dat daar 'n tydsbeperking is.

Die verkeerspolisie bet toe aan hulle begeleiding verskaf, met sirenes en aI, tot by die blitspatrollie en weer terug tot na die buitewyke van Johannesburg!

Oortyd het ons baie gewerk. Pik, met die ondersteuning van mnr Donald Sole, het gereel dat ons daarvoor vergoed word. Hy en ander het een maand, as ek reg onthou, meer as 250 uur oortyd gewerk! Helena en die kinders het oor die naweke kos gebring. Maandaoggende was die toegewyde Helena daar met sy skeergoed en soos sy dit gestel het "ten minste 'n skoon hemp"!

Tydens die druk van, ek glo, die "Counter Memorials" was Pik die Departement se verteenwoordiger by die drukpers in Kaapstad. Die setters moes vera! baie aande laat werke, soms oor naweke. Hulle is ruim daarvoor vergoed. 

Toe alles klaar was, het een van die setters Pik kom groet. Laasgenoemde het hom hartlik bedank en die vertroue uitgespreek: dat hy tevrede is met die materiele vergoeding. Volgens Pik was die antwoord: " Mr. Botha, I shall give you all the money I earned for this overtime, provided you give me that time to live!"

Daar is dinge wat meer werd is as geld, soos herinneringe!

"n vis storie ...

Annatjie Prinsloo, Frankfurt.

Dit was September 1984 en die laaste Vrydag van daardie drie weke waarin die nuwe taatspresident, mnr P W Botha, ingehuldig is in Kaapstad en toe die "VIER" in Coventry aangehou was en die "SES" hulle toevlug tot die Britse Konsulaat in Durban geneem het.

Soveel  werk, buite teen Seinheuwel skyn die son uit 'n bloue hemel, Brian Cohen se bote is besig om die ryk opbrengs van die bloudam in te sameL..en daar begin Minister Pik se hart met 'n punt na die spieelgladde see toe trek. a, die hardvogtige Assistent-Privaatsekretaris, is gedetermineerd om die werk klaar te kry en dra net meer voorleggings aan vir goedkeuring  en ondertekening.

En toe kry die Minister 'n plan.

Vie Zazeraj, die Privaatsekretaris, was nie in sy kantoor nie en ek het sommer daar by die skakelbord gesit en werk (buiten die Minister se jarelange motorbestuurder oom Kemeels Joubert, was ons die enigste Ministeriepersoneel in die Kaap op daardie tydstip).

Die plan kon dalk werk. Terwyl ek nog so sit en tik, gewaar ek 'n beweging uit die hoek van my oog: daar in die gang, lewensgroot op sy hande en kniee, is die Minister besig om verby my te kruip in die gang af op pad na sy vryheid en die see!

Wat ek met die kwajong gemaak het? Ten spyte van twee yslike verwytende oe natuurlik onmiddellik na sy kantoor teruggestuur!

Die weer daarbuite (anders as in die kantoor!) het gunstig gebly en daardie aand, toe die werk op datum was, kon die Minister (geklee in daardie ou kakiebroek waarvan die soom so 'n stuk weggebrand was deur die kole, maar wag, dis 'n ander storie), Vic en oom Kemeels op die boot uitvaar in salige kameraderie.

Pik Botha, the man

Pierre Dietrichsen

Meintjeskop Koerier Volume II, 1994

Many of my colleagues have had a longer direct association with Minister Pik Botha than I have and I write these lines realising that I would possibly contribute very little not already said by someone else. Nevertheless. with time marching on and the Minister now at a neighbouring Ministry. a bit of nostalgia might be in order. 

The first time I heard the name Pik Botha was. almost inevitably. in the context of my reading of the World Court Cases on Namibia. Little did I realise that I would one day work ."at his side". Then came the general  elections and the famous smile was all over the lamp posts and trees of Pretoria and after that it was Pik Botha, MP. Shortly after that I joined the Department and got to know several colleagues who had worked with him on the SW A-case. as they called it. They spoke in admiration of his stamina and ability to read and reread papers long after midnight without tiring.

My first personal experience came in New York. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Hilgard Muller was leading. the delegation of SA to the General Assembly with Pik Botha, Dirk Mudge and and other politicos such as Lennox Sebe, if my memory serves me well. as members apart from Departmental and Mission staff. It was 1973 and already the credentials question was hotly discussed. 

I remember how strongly Mr Botha argued for firm action. both in the Assembly and in the lobbies. By the way. this was an important session for China and Germany too apart from the fact that Henry Kissinger made a speech in his deep voice which was not easy to forget! Pik Botha was clearly at home in that theatre of operations and I think his long friendships and associations with people like Kissinger started there. But I could also see that colleagues such as Carl von Hirschberg. who was Permanent Representative. Jim Steward. Hermatm Hanekom, Derek Auret and Dawie Gericke had a healthy respect for the MP with the quick smile but the uncompromising desire for good results and high standards. I was a "temporary" member and could almost choose when to be absent. if you know what I mean!

When Pik Botha became our Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1977. I was at Head Office. Shortly after that I was posted to Paris where the Minister soon visited for talks. Late one evening. . after meetings and a cocktail. Ambassador Louis Pienaar and Jeremy Shearar had already left when the Minister decided his team should go out for dinner to be able to face up to the hectic programme of the next day! I was the only Embassy staff member around and so it came to pass that a mere First Secretary had to entertain the Minister. 

The Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Brand Fourie, decided that he had had enough to eat and sat out. After some hurried telephone calls to find a restaurant prepared to accommodate some ten people for dinner on the wrong side of 11 p.m .we left from the Rafael Hotel in the 16th arrondissement for the Gauloise in the 15th. Luckily my instinct had given me the foresight to keep the cars waiting until the last moment! It was a relatively short drive but still took some ten minutes. 

The Restaurant was not a very inspiring sight close to midnight (few Parisian restaurants  are. some would say) and this. together with the inconvenience of the trip through Paris traffic. caused the Minister to severely question my sanity. Before entering. I was sure I heard the words "Kafee op Petrussteyn" and  something about "ure se ry in die middemag", but. I must add, my objective was to get in there to tell my acquaintance, the "maitre" that the dinner was "big stuff'.I think he read it on my face because he was extra charming, but. to no avail, all in French! Man, did I interpret and invent! 

By the time the snails were three minutes late, the party was ready to abandon the outing It took some convincing to stay and 'voila!', the snails arrived. Our visitors had expected a dozen on a plate but this man did things in style; a plate full each with the most delicious sauce caused a silence at the table that had me wondering! By the time the fillet arrived the best  Bordeaux had done its magic, the Restaurant was a different place. The punchline is this: Pik Botha expects quality and when he gets it he recognises it I was complimented on my knowledge and my judgement  I  personally thought my tenacity was way up in the A's. Some more visits followed over the next four years and I  really matured in the job!

On my return to Head Office in 1982, I joined the staff of Mr Hans van Dalsen, the Director-General. We were closely involved in negotiations with Angola about the withdrawal of the Cuban troops and the meetings with Mozambique to reach agreements on matters of mutual concern. The first number of meetings took place at  Komatipoort at the Motel near the border post, The airstrip near the town at times became a true international airport! Delegations on both sides were normally  substantial and colleagues and I had our hands full with  logistics. 

I wrote minutes until late at night many times.  What impressed me then was the fact that Pik Botha  never looked at my notes; yet he remembered every word  and nuance used by the other delegation weeks and months Iater and used them effectively. This contributed to the confidence built up over months between the sides.In this context; I personally experienced the Minister's stamina. After a long day of talks. the Minister requested us to arrange dinner at the Castle for the two delegations. 

This is where the Nkomati agreement was formally taking shape. Late at night when he sensed that agreement was near, the Minister suggested that the politicians continue political negotiations while the "experts" take leave to a backroom to come up with a fine-tuned text. Adv. Jan Heunis, Les Manley, I and others then toiled away while the Ministers talked about future relations. Soon after that we witnessed a classic Pik Botha move; when the text was agreed on it was time to arrange the signing  ceremony. Pretoria and other venues were suggested but  the Minister thought only one place was symbolically suitable; Komatipoort. 

Somebody mentioned three weeks as a suitable delay but the Minister thought a week was  enough to arrange it so, just about the whole Africa branch. Protocol and several others got to work with the help of other departments to create a Pik Botaa-inspired temporary village on the banks of the Nkomati to sign the accord some ten days later with full military pomp and a  five-course lunch for hundreds in tents and train coaches.  The Minister's drive and original thinking certainly inspired his colleagues and got officials to adopt a "can- do" attitude. I think a few were exhausted in the process but Pik Botha thrived! It was March 1984 and I spent my birthday at Komatipoort

Several commentators of note have written on meetings with Angolan delegations on Ilha do Sal and I shall not venture into detail. What was impressive was the ability of the Minister to arrive with SAA flights to Europe around 01hOO and after very little sleep, keep the nose to the grindstone all day just to leave again at the same ungodly hour at night in time to report to Cabinet at 09hOO the next morning in Cape Town. 

A number of other Cabinet Ministers and officials aged a lot in those days: "Omtrent op hierdie stadium is ek aangese te sluit  om by die Ministerie met mnr Hans van Dalsen se aftrede. Hierdie artikeltjie is oor Pik Botha maar ek dink dit is heeltemal in orde om te noem dat Hans van Dalsen een van die Ambassadeurs en persone is vir wie ek net die hoogste agting het ' n Werklike goeie rolmodel as mens en diplomaat! Hy het as Direkteur-generaal die  Minister uitstekend aangevul. Net soos mev Helena Botha 'n rol vervul het wat nie onderskat moet word nie.

"Na 'n tyd by die Minister het dit tyd geword om weer te probeer vir 'n pos. Even Rieken bet tot hulp gekom en nadat die Minister oorreed is dat 'n plaasvervanger vir my in die naam van Hennie de Klerk net nommerpas was, was ek op pad Tokio toe. Oor die sakie onthou ek 'n paar gesprekke, onder andere by 'rt'klein afskeidspanytjie vir my. Dit het so verloop: "Pierre, moet julle nou gaan?" PD: "Ek dink so Minister, ek is al amper vier jaar terug op Hoofkantoor." 

"Mev Pat D: "Ons geld is gedaan .Minister, ons is vrek arm." Minister: "Ja nee, dan is dit erg. Les, Ons mense moo meet geld kry op Hoofkantoor. Praat met Even, ons moet 'n plan maak, regtig. Ons kan nie so aangaan nie." Dit was nog 'n ding van Pik Botha wat 'n mens bybly; sy menslikheid wat hy soms op die onverwagte oomblik getoon het, selfs in 'n tyd van spanning en drama. 

"Oaar is natuurlik ander staaltjies soos tasse wat wegraak op Frankfurt lughawe net voor Rubicon, nagmerries met die buitelandse reis van die Eerste Minister na sewe lande in 1984, potjiekos kompetisies wat ons verloor bet, SAUK probleme en ander sonde met die bure wat ek aan ander kollegas en vriende sal oorlaat, Meer onlangse sake soos OIlS onderhandelinge met China terwyl Codesa aan die gang was, reise na die Ooste saam met die huidige DG en so aan sal ek maar eers laat oud word. Ek het reeds soos die spreekwoord se, 'n mond vol te se gehad. Groemis aan 'n Minister, 'n baas, 'n kollega en 'n vriend."