“When the lights go out, there is the temptation to rewrite history,” Lord Robin Renwick is telling a small crowd on the patio of the British high commissioner’s Cape Town residence. The gathering is to celebrate Renwick’s new book, Mission to South Africa: Diary of a Revolution – a terse, riveting account of his time as British ambassador to SA during the waning days of apartheid. FW de Klerk replaces him behind the microphone.
'When the lights go out, there is the temptation to rewrite history'
Former ambassador Lord Robin Renwick was a potent force behind SA's transition
“When the lights go out, there is the temptation to rewrite history,” Lord Robin Renwick is telling a small crowd on the patio of the British high commissioner’s Cape Town residence. The gathering is to celebrate Renwick’s new book, Mission to South Africa: Diary of a Revolution – a terse, riveting account of his time as British ambassador to SA during the waning days of apartheid. FW de Klerk replaces him behind the microphone.
Image: David Crookes
“This should be required reading for the ANC,” he thunders, taking aim at the suggestion that only the ANC was responsible for the dismantling of apartheid. The former state president softens as he describes the book as being a “praise song” for Mandela. “I felt close to him while reading it.” A few days earlier I had met Renwick at the Cellars-Hohenhort Hotel to discuss the book.
Though he emphasises that the negotiated transition to democracy was very much conducted “between South Africans”, he’s proud of the role – often behind the scenes – he played in helping to facilitate dialogue between the major players: indeed, some of the first encounters between ANC apparatchiks and their National Party counterparts were at functions hosted by the embassy.
When he arrived in the country as Margaret Thatcher’s personal envoy in 1987, “the situation was really desperate,” he recalls. Then state president PW
Botha’s security apparatus was “taking out opponents by whatever means necessary”; there were an estimated 2 500 people being detained without trial; the ANC’s leaders were in prison or exile. “Most people firmly believed you were heading for disaster – for ever-greater internal conflict and isolation. What we wanted to do was to try to encourage, in various ways, both sides to embark on negotiations.”
While supportive of arms and nuclear embargoes, both Renwick and Thatcher were against “general sanctions”. The latter received flak for this stance both abroad (at Commonwealth conferences, for example) and from her political opponents at home. “The Labour Party used to say to Thatcher, ‘You’re opposed to general sanctions, therefore you’re supporting apartheid.’”
Mission to South Africa is published by Jonathan Ball and is available from leading bookshops.
April 2015