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From Verwoerd to Mandela, South African Diplomats Remember

(Compiled by Pieter Wolvaardt, Tom Wheeler and Werner Scholtz)

The inside story of South Africa’s Foreign Service between the years 1960 and 1994 remains largely unknown, mostly because the official history of the Department of Foreign Affairs only covered political issues and events up to 1966.

From Verwoerd to Mandela (Volumes 1 – 3) tells the varied stories of many apartheid-era diplomats. Some of them are serious and factual, while others are infused with personal recollections and anecdotes which give the book a ‘human’ face. They also lift the lid for the first time on the unconventional diplomacy that South Africa was obliged to employ from the 1960s to the 1990s, and contain material and photographs never previously published. The stories in these volumes should lay to rest the notion that South African diplomats of that era had little experience of the conduct of international relations in the conventional sense. They also illustrate the ingenuity and determination it took to represent South Africa during difficult times.

Besides being a fascinating read, the trilogy constitutes a vast first-hand resource for researchers who seek to study South Africa’s international relations before and until shortly after the dramatic political changes of 1994.  

Few outsiders knew how much contact and positive co-operation was established in Africa long before the demise of apartheid. In volume 1 (ISBN 978-0-620-45458-2) – ‘The Wild Honey of Africa’ – the Department’s engagement with a wide number of these countries is dealt with, from Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, Somalia, Zambia and the TBVC ‘countries’,  to the long road to independence for Namibia. The latter is vividly described by various officials involved, and these insiders probably provide the fullest possible account of that process published to date.

Volume 2 (ISBN 978-0620-45459-9) – ‘The Noose Tightens’ – includes contributions on events in Australasia, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, Japan, Israel, Pakistan and several Latin American countries. These chapters are interspersed with contributions dealing with the experiences of colleagues at the Department’s head office in the Union Buildings during the 1960s. In addition there are contributions by their spouses and children and describing the experiences of colleagues when they were trainee diplomats. The volume ends with the tragic kidnapping and death of Ambassador Eddie Dunn in El Salvador.

Volume 3 (ISBN 978-0-620-45460-5) – ‘Total Onslaught to Normalisation’ – deals with Europe, followed by the USA, then multilateral and nuclear issues, the ‘total onslaught’, the State Security Council, spies, unconventional diplomacy, sanctions, the ‘Rubicon’, the ‘Troika’, the Eminent Persons Group, and the Transitional Executive Council,  through to hope, transition and frustration.

Recommended retail price: R250 each for volumes 1 and 2, R300 for volume 3.

Place your orders with Tom Wheeler  tom_wheeler@mweb.co.za