By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Dr Niel Barnard, the spy chief who led a secret mission to avoid civil war in South Africa has died at the age of 75, his family confirmed.
Barnard died in Gansbaai in the Western Cape on Monday morning after a battle with cancer.
“He died peacefully in Gansbaai on Monday morning after a long battle with cancer, said family spokesperson.”
Barnard was renowned as the first representative of the South African government to engage with the then-banned African National Congress (ANC), represented by former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, to discuss a peaceful transition to a constitutional democracy.
FW De Klerk’s speech, was the culmination of five years of secret talks between the South African government and the ANC to break the logjam in the South African conflict. De Klerk’s historic speech on 2 February was essentially a script written by Barnard.
From 1987 until De Klerk’s February 1990 announcement, Barnard pursued a two-pronged strategy: first, he led a small committee of senior civil servants and held 48 secret meetings with Nelson Mandela in prison exploring possibilities for a breakthrough; Mandela, alone against Barnard’s formidable team, had no mandate from ANC president Oliver Tambo to engage the regime but later sent an emissary to Tambo to update him about his engagement with Barnard and the government. Second, he assembled a team of verligte Afrikaner academics from Stellenbosch, led by Professor Willie Esterhuyse, to engage Mbeki and his team in secret talks in exile for the same purpose.
Pieter Willem Botha, popularly known as PW, in his capacity as president of apartheid South Africa, was the real architect of the secret talks that ultimately led to De Klerk’s historic announcement in February 1990. As early as 1979, a year after Tambo had led a high-level ANC delegation to Vietnam to seek guidance on how to prosecute the South African Struggle, Botha summoned Barnard from the then University of the Orange Free State (UOFS) to Pretoria for an unusual chat.
Botha instructed Barnard to secretly talk to Mandela in prison and Mbeki in the UK without informing his Cabinet because it was too risky to do so. Tambo authorised Mbeki to engage the Afrikaner academics without informing the NEC. The die was cast.
These secret talks were risky for both sides. Botha told Barnard unequivocally that should the media report about these talks, he would disown him. Tambo, on the other hand, warned Mbeki that should the talks leak, he would not defend him against ANC hawks like Joe Slovo and Chris Hani in the NEC. Any leak would have compromised Botha severely. White voters still viewed the ANC as terrorists controlled by Moscow in the context of the Cold War. Reports of Botha talking to the ANC would have sunk him as leader of the National Party and president of South Africa. This explains why senior Nats like De Klerk, Pik Botha and Magnus Malan were not informed about this initiative. It therefore fell upon the tiny shoulders of Barnard to navigate these treacherous waters.
De Klerk replaced PW Botha as president in September 1989 and just four months later made his historic speech.He was not part of the secret talks that Botha authorised and Barnard led. For a long time, he had no idea what Botha and Barnard were up to.
However, the real workhorse that guided South Africa away from the destructive route of civil war was Barnard.
Unfortunately for him, he was never president and couldn’t have taken the podium on 2 February 1990.
Barnard is survived by his wife, two sons, and five grandchildren. Funeral details will be announced in due course.
With inputs from Sello Lediga the Chairperson of ActionSA in Limpopo Opinion Piece on Daily Maverick. Extracts from his latest book, South Africa’s Transition from Apartheid to Democracy.