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SPEAKING ILL OF THE DEAD
Our duty is to remember
People corrupted by power can spread a great deal of evil.
That is why, it seems to me, it is wrong to believe that one should never speak ill of the dead. . . not even in the obituary of a leader about to be buried in moments of official mourning. .
It is wrong, but also dishonest and probably harmful not to recall what evil men have done. . What good could one say of Hitler? What good could one say of PW Botha? And of a 'gooie kerel, nice chap’ like Apartheid’s first Minister of Justice, C R ‘Blackie’ Swart?
‘Blackie’ Swart loved to be loved. He was a six-foot amiable guy who set out in his youth to make a name as a cowboy in Hollywood. His misfortune was – not missing a role on a white horse with lasso – but catching the rolling bandwagon of oppressed Afrikaans nationalism. He found himself in the 1st Nationalist Cabinet, a party of formerly oppressed people growing ultra-oppressive in introducing apartheid, enlarging the Senate in order to block the already limited votes of black and brown people, and dispensing authoritarian justice. His undoing was not his notorious flourishing of a sjambok in Parliament to demonstrate a whipping treatment for (black) prisoners. He was not innately a cruel man. His undoing was his need, as Minister of Justice, to be loved and admired by the police, and the hugely conservative, historically racist farmers who supported him.
It was when the Minister of Justice was lax in caring for justice that the South African Police lost their way, By encouraging ‘short-cuts’ the Minister, indirectly encouraged policemen to shed their discipline and their reputation. The ills arising out of C R Swart’s initial policies for an apartheid State caused immeasurable suffering for tens of thousands of people for the next 40 years.
When he died, I would not let my newspaper say good things of him – even though he was by then President of South Africa. It was necessary to speak ill of the dead. It was necessary to remind readers of individual values and responsibilities.
Our frank obituary was ill-received by the majority of those who could read newspapers – even though we conceded he was a gooie kerel in private life.
That was long ago.
* * *
In 2006, there was nothing good that I believe could be said about another South African President, PW ‘Skiet’ Botha . However, when he died, the anti-apartheid Opposition Press commentators had nothing ill to say of PW, and offered him praise (though often faint) on the fallacious grounds that he had opened the road to reform and transformation.
These mealy-mouthed, occasionally begrudging tributes, were ill-conceived in my view. Knowing the writers, I believe some of these obituaries were insincere and merely paid tribute – not to PW Botha – but to funerary convention.
As for President PW Botha’s role in belatedly putting South Africa on the road to democracy - I think that - despite Nelson Mandela's generous judgement in later years - P.W's intention was the very opposite to promoting democracy. He called for ‘reform’ of apartheid in order to buy it time. He talked ‘reform’ for the same reason that he preached ‘Adapt or Die’ and ‘Total ONslaught' and 'Total Strategy’ (meaning total warfare against ‘communists’ and enemies of apartheid). He sought at all times to prolong his own power and the power of his minority of a white minority. He reached out to a broader support base to try to retain the relatively popular idea (among whites) of racial segregation.
That was why he called for a referendum. He wanted the white voters to join hands in supporting ‘Reform’. And he deliberately confused the referendum wording to isolate the liberal Left and the Far Right- and make them vote together on the same side. His cunning produced precisely what he wanted: a fatal wound to the liberal progressives – and a growing Right Wing which he could properly identify and manipulate.
He hoped from this to produce a less malignant, more innocent-looking policy – apartheid in sheep’s clothing – with him, the crocodile, as the shepherd.
To the end, he never showed remorse for the death and suffering his hands-on policies caused. (Some obituary writers were able to praise this ‘consistency/ temerity/ bravery’ without detecting in it any ‘ill’).
I happen to be biased against PW, (philosophically and politically, not personally as some amusing little encounters suggest). But the point about the need to speak ill of some of the dead remains valid.
For his supporters to praise him at death is understandable, and is probably as valid and sincere as the mourning of his family and friends. But for public commentators, especially his life-long critics to do so, is in my view wrong as well as sad. Because, while ‘the good is oft interred with our bones’ the evil that men do, especially the evil of men blessed or cursed with power, lives after them.
That form of irresponsible evil needs to be identified and eradicated under all circumstances.
Hitler is a clear-cut example of it.
So in my view, is PW Botha who – after Verwoerd – was the most bigoted and inhumane of all apartheid’s leaders. Neither could be compared with the demonic Hitler, but In terms of leadership and taking responsibility for the actions of their governments, I place Botha and Verwoerd with Pinochet and Saddam Hussein. There are a lot of people prepared to praise the Chilean and Iraqi political murderers as well, and it is understandable with family, friends and those with political agendas. But history needs to take a balanced public stance.
We must learn to depreciate, not praise, those corrupted by power.
However, there are more interesting opinions than mine on the good or evil of PW, pronounced by Afrikaner academics and by newspaper readers. Here is a random selection:
PW's Legacy - Quotes from the views of other Afrikaans writers
Death has a way of glorifying people. I have the overwhelming feeling that he got away with murder and therefore I am overwhelmed with frustrated anger.
- IT specialist Johan Pienaar, writing for an Afrikaans Literary website www.litnet.co.za .
PW Botha's death ended an era. It was a time of censorship, intimidation and "militarism of the spirit". It was a time when everyone was nervous and afraid and free speech was nonexistent. . .
It was the last Moment of White Domination. Of senseless border wars driven by the Militaristic Finger and his Chums.
Author and poet, Prof Joan Hambidge:
(I) expected to be happy about the news of PW's death, but wasn't. (I) realised the president was part of my psyche as a child, when my father was a staunch nationalist. I think PW probably must have felt about South Africa as Frankenstein felt about his monster. It was PW who abolished the Immorality Act It was PW who got rid of the pass laws and freed the labour unions. It was PW who, with his twisted logic, decided to give coloured people and Indians the right to vote. Yet it was PW who, during the Rubicon speech refused to sell out the white minority.
Publisher Izak de Vries:
PW should at least be respected for staying proud until the end. He wasn't the cringing type, which is refreshing in this New South Africa of ours.
Artist Bertie du Plessis
Because of Botha's policies, ‘home, South Africa’ became a dirty word". Half my family emigrated to get away from the "intolerable" reality he created.
Ingrid Wolfaardt:
(Above quotes published in Cape Times on November 6, 2006)
Letters to the Press, responding to news reports
It was ridiculous to compare the former President with Hitler . .. PW unlike Hitler, was not a mass murderer. He was merely maintaining law and order in a country engulfed in violence in a world still divided into East and West with a very real Soviet/communist threat in the region. . . .He more than any other previous white ruler in South Africa’s history saw the need for reform and scrapping of discrimination
- Leonardo Lupini, Johannesburg (letter to Sunday Times)
If it is true that Nelson Mandela paid tribute to PW Botha, as reported in Le Figaro, the explanation cannot lie in "respect for the dead" or "fostering national reconciliation" . . .
. . .Botha was a criminal who handed out power only because, for things to stay as were, things would have to change. That he was not judged and punished during his lifetime tells us only about the weakness of his opponents. It is further confirmation that "power is not given, it is taken”.
Mandela's lack of memory has nothing to do with age, but rather with what seems this eternal and childish attitude of African man to forget and forgive the most appalling crimes against him: colonisation, slave trade, apartheid. . . .
- Azibo Abebe, France (letter to Mail & Guardian)
Botha was not a genuine reformer and at best reluctantly responded to political realities. The pass laws were abolished because millions of blacks moved to the cities despite (his Party’s) best efforts, not because PW believed they were immoral. He believed that through the tricameral system, nominated MPs, an appointed upper house and a qualified vote for urban blacks, he could rig the political playing field so 12% of the population would have 51% of the vote for at least the next century.
- Michael Brett, Hartebeeslwek (M & G)
. . .I can think of several African leaders who did and are still committing far more serious ‘ crimes’ against their own people than Botha, and don’t call me a racist for saying that. . .
There is much bad in the best of us and much good in the worst of us. . . God forgives the sins of man, regardless of our own judgemental attitudes, and he will forgive P W Boha’s wrongdoing.
- - Academic, Potchefstroom (letter to Sunday Times.)
As a young South African, I don’t feel any loss for this country. . . Are we expected to remember the perpretrators of apartheid as transformers who wanted change in this country? I don’t think so.
-- Lindiwe Songca, Port Elizabeth (S.T.)
Is it any wonder Botha didn’t want South Africa run by blacks – who have since the days of Shaka been involved in ethnic cleansing.
– Brian O”Neill, Benoni (S.T.)
His achievements were many, but he was never given credit for them
– Alan C Brown, Rustenburg (S.T.)
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