I wish to add my sincere condolences to his family and many friends and to express my sadness at the loss of a great South African last Friday.
‘Van’, as he was affectionately known to his friends, was not only a great human being but also a real man’s man in the true sense of that expression. I first met him in 1959 at Wits University where we were both students. Van was studying for BA and I was doing my best to become a mining engineer. We both played in the Wits under 19 rugby team and won the league in that year. Van was a very popular member of the team who kept largely to himself and did not say very much.
The following year Van moved to Stellenbosch University and I did the same in 1961 where we again played in the same rugby teams from time to time for the next 2 years. Van was an exceptionally good rugby player and apart from playing in the first team he also represented Western Province, as it was then known, as 8th man. He was only kept out of the team for some time by Doug Hopwood who also represented the Springboks in that position.
Van was chosen as primarius of Wilgenhof residence at Stellenbosch University in about 1963. I left Stellenbosch in 1964 to study for my LLB at Wits University and lost touch with him for a time. I met Van again after he became a member of parliament in 1974 and then Leader of the Opposition in 1979.
I remember visiting him in Parliament in either 1985 or early 1986 when he invited me to have tea with him in his office. I explained that I had served on the steering committee of the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa [‘IMSSA’] and what its goals were. He was very interested in how IMSSA had been established as a private initiative and the concept of mediation and what had been achieved in the field of industrial relations. The following year Van resigned from parliament and left politics to start IDASA with Alex Boraine. I like to think I contributed in some small way to his decision to quit politics and seek a more appropriate way of transforming South Africa.
Van wrote some interesting books giving an insight into his personal life, amongst others,
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- “The Last White Parliament” (1985);
- “The System and the Struggle: Reform, Revolt and Reaction in South Africa” (1989);
- “The Quest for Democracy” (1992) and
- “Tough Choices: Reflections of an Afrikaner African” (1999).
One of the most fascinating parts of the first book, written in 1985 and the year before he resigned from parliament and as Leader of the Opposition, is his description of his decision to quit his theology studies at Stellenbosch University in about 1964.
“So one afternoon found me pedalling uphill into a furious South-easter on a borrowed bicycle whose chain slipped the cog once in every cycle, thinking of how to explain to the Dean of Divinity at his home why I was not carrying on. I was reviewing the ponderous theological and philosophical chestnuts I would put forward and had visions of debating until the early hours of the morning, when the answer presented itself in all its simplicity. I did not want to argue, I wanted to get out. If God called me, then He could uncall me. … It was all over in ten minutes. . . . The sense of elation and freedom I experienced, racing down the hill on the old bicycle with the wind behind my back, remains one of the sweeter memories of my life”. [page 24]
He was truly an Afrikaner African who always strived for a better South Africa and acted in the best interests of all South Africans. He will be remembered as a person who contributed greatly to the peaceful development of our wonderful country and fearlessly supported the rights of all citizens despite being attacked for his views, particularly during the early years.
I have included 2 photographs of the two of us in rugby teams at Wits and Stellenbosch.
The first was taken in 1959 in the change room at Wits with Van second from the right in the back row (I am second from the left in the back row). Also in the photograph are 2 future Springboks: Alan Menter and Eddie Barlow.
[/caption]The second photograph was the Stellenbosch University 2nd rugby team taken in about 1962 just before intervarsity against the Ikeys at Coetzenburg. Van was captain and first on the left (I am 5th from the left).
Maties senior 2nd team before Intervarsity - 1962 or 1963
Thank you Graham. Good to read and especially to take a moment to realise what we have lost with “Van’s” passing.
I was also touched by the death of Van. He reminds me of many like him who have passed on and only get appreciated when they are gone. He reminds me of Oom Bey, Bram Fischer.
I will remember him as a man of intergrity who took the initiative to make contact with the ANC in order to start the negotiations to rebuild this country. May his soul rest in peace.
Thank you for your response and would you believe it but when we lived in Johannesburg our home in Haswell Street was next door to Bram Fischer. I even ‘dated’ his beautiful daughter Ilsa for a brief spell. When I was an articled clerk (now candidate attorney) I often delivered legal briefs on behalf of major clients, such as Anglo American, from our law firm Webber Wentzel Hofmeyr Turnbull (now Webber Wentzel) to Bram Fischer QC, a highly respected advocate at the Bar in Johannesburg. I can only agree with you that Van also reminds me of Bram Fischer – highly principled and dedicated to serving all South Africans. What is more they both lived without any ostentation and set good examples in their private lives as well.
Indeed, the death of Dr Van Zyl Slabbert is a great loss to South Africa as a whole, and not only to his immediate family and friends.
He was a great intellectual whose ideal of a “New South Africa” had endeared him to many a young combatant of MK during the days of the armed struggle for despite being an Afrikaner he proved that one could fight apartheid even if one was its beneficiary.
I have no doubt that his courage and that of his peers contributed a great deal to the anti-apartheid activities which saw many white people openly protesting against unjust laws during the UDF era.
As a young combatant in the early 1980s I remember hearing his name for the first time from an old comrade we affectionately called comrade Petrov who was assigned as our political instructor.
One day he told us that a group of prominent white South Africans led by Dr Van Zyl Slabbert was expected to meet the ANC leadership for discussions that would pave the way for the unbanning of the liberation movements and the democratisation of South Africa.
Since then I began to realise that here was a great man who still possessed what seems to be a forgotten virtue, honour!
Through IDASA he made a sterling contribution to the introduction of democracy in the land.
I hope his death will remind people of every hue in the country of the contributions made by some white compatriots to the liberation of South Africa.
You are so right! I remember attending a UDF rally in the city hall in Durban after Van Zyl returned from Lusaka. He spoke in a hoarse voice, because of all the talking he had done. He told us how he and former president Thabo Mbeki had walked together and how much they had in common and how much they both loved South Africa and its people. Van Zyl said it was tragic that Mr Mbeki could not return to his own country and everything possible should be done to ensure that we became a united nation. It made a huge impression on everyone that night.
In a sense you make me feel very ashamed that I did not do much more during those dreadful days to work for change. Hopefully in some small way I am able to try and make up for it now by providing free access to this website to any interested persons.
At some stage I intend to write something personal about the late Allard Lowenstein. He and 2 fellow students from the USA visited this country in 1959 as ‘students’ and after recording conversations with Namibians gave evidence in the United Nations about the then government’s treatment of the people of that country. I was fortunate enough to meet him during that visit. In 1962 he published a book “Brutal Mandate: a journey to South West Africa” in which he recorded their experiences and in which he pleaded with the government to change its policy. He really loved this country and tragically was murdered in his office some years after he wrote the book.