Fresh insights on Madiba

28 May 2014 | Martin Williams | Original Publication:  The Citizen

With an abundance of material on Madiba available, it’s handy to know whether any new book about the great man offers fresh insights.

Tony Leon’s latest memoir, Opposite Mandela, does so. Leon was perfectly positioned to have a unique perspective. Not only did he become the leader of the opposition when Mandela was president, he was also MP for Houghton, where Mandela moved shortly after his release in 1990. There are other coincidences weaved into this engaging story. These include family links that connected the two to noteworthy events and personalities.

With customary chutzpah, Leon capitalised on Madiba’s presence in Houghton by delivering a chocolate cake and a hand-written invitation to attend a DA constituency report-back meeting. Although Madiba declined, he reci-procated, asking Leon “and one or two other DP chaps” around for dinner. That’s where the young MP began to learn that his host had “an almost preternatural talent for reaching out to, and charming, those outside the circle of true believers”.

All Leon’s observations about Madiba are made within the context of admiration and respect for “a leader born with a special kind of grace, who seems to transcend the politics of his age”.

Yet Leon is not shy to point out flaws. For example, he did not hold back when Mandela defended the actions of ANC members who shot and killed IFP marchers in the 1994 Shell House massacre. When the matter was raised in Parliament, Leon quoted a leaked memo showing police had been unable to investigate, as they had been denied access to the building.

Mandela later said he had personally given ANC guards the order “shoot to kill”. And he got away with it. “In this and many other judgment lapses, as I viewed them, Mandela’s Teflon coating was ultra-resilient.”

There’s also a chapter on how Leon dealt with Mandela’s invitation to join the Cabinet. Harry Oppenheimer and Bobby Godsell thought the DP should “give it a go”, but former party leaders Helen Suzman and Frederik van Zyl Slabbert advised against it.

Leon sought advice from many quarters and pondered long over the issue. With the benefit of hindsight, he says: “South Africa, today, would be less likely to have been a robust, open democracy with government held to account by an independent opposition had (Madiba’s) proposal been realised.”

Leon offers insights into other key players. During the protracted talks that preceded SA’s historic political settlement, his initial antipathy to Joe Slovo “melted as I found his sharp and cynical humour made us, across the divide of age and ideology, actually quite kindred spirits”.

Indeed, at the Hyde Park book launch last week it was pointed out that Leon was wearing red socks – a Slovo trademark. I’m not sure what we were supposed to read into that.

Leon’s clashes with Madiba’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, are legendary. However, in this volume he explains how “the Mbeki of 1994 was a much nicer person, far more approachable and accommodating”.

Throughout the book there are examples of warm, personal exchanges between Leon and Mandela. In 2002, on the veranda of Madiba’s Houghton home in front of a phalanx of reporters and photographers, the elder statesman put his arm around the shoulder of the opposition leader, declaring: “Tony Leon is a proper democrat and there should be dialogue at all levels of our country.”

Another glimpse of what we are missing.

Opposite Mandela by Tony Leon is published by Jonathan Ball. (Paperback, 243 pages, R210).

 

 

Yes, he was diplomatic

17 April 2013  | Martin Williams | Original Publication:  The Citizen

Tony Leon is a good writer. Good enough to command a regular column in Business Day, whose editor, Peter Bruce, remarked at the book launch last week that Leon sustains his standard without applying the journalistic rule that adjectives should be avoided.

nullNot rated yet.

The Accidental Ambassador is full of adjectives. Yet it is captivating because Leon is an astute, well-informed observer who enjoys entertaining. He  does his homework, so his observations are interspersed with interesting information gleaned from research.

Leon did not set out to be an ambassador. The job came about after he baulked at  Jacob Zuma’s request for him to serve on the Human Rights Commission.  Having recently visited his friend Douglas Gibson, then ambassador to Thailand, Leon hinted that he too would like a diplomatic post. And so it came to pass .

Patagonia doesn’t loom large in the book but  makes for a catchy subtitle. He paid a brief visit to the Boers at the end of the world, in southeast  Argentina. About 800 SA  families settled there in the early 20th century, to escape British rule. Although Afrikaans surnames abound, the bearers are Spanish speaking. That’s where Leon met a Van der Merwe who could not speak Afrikaans or English.

During his three years as our representative in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay  he was  busy. He ramped up the embassy’s activity level, boosting trade, cultural and sporting ties. In September 2009, bequeathed an “exceptionally modest list of contacts”, he set about remedying this, inspired by the words of his friend, businessman Philip Krawitz: “Your net worth is your network, and vice versa.”

Having witnessed him in action in Mendoza, when the Pumas made their entry into the Rugby Championship, I attest to his frenetic social pace.  He also found time to appreciate natural wonders such as Iguassu Falls, where The Mission was filmed, and the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador.

Those who think of Leon as an abrasive “fight-back” opposition leader question his diplomatic skills. He is in fact charming, and savvy enough to know when to hold back. In the book he admits to one faux pas. Hosting a dinner where guests included the British ambassador, he upset a guest by  asking: “What is it about the Malvinas that makes all Argentines so agitated? After all, you wouldn’t go and live in that windswept archipelago?”

That touches a raw nerve in the land of the gaucho and Evita, which bristles at British rule of what Margaret Thatcher called the Falklands. Politics is Leon’s game, so there are sharp comments about the powers that be in Argentina and SA. He draws comparisons and finds our discourse mild in relation to that of the Peronists, whose  venality may surpass that of our rulers.

Can a former leader of the opposition be a good ambassador? Leon thinks he did so by representing the country, not the ruling party.  He did not have to compromise his principles. And in cables to head office he was not shy to point out where SA fell short of Nelson Mandela’s pledge that human rights would guide foreign policy. That may have led to the speedy acceptance when he said he’d like to come home a year early.

The Accidental Ambassador is a worthy successor to On the Contrary.