Uncle Billy: Our Picasso in the art of diplomacy, our all-in-one, our sage
An edited extract from a tribute to ambassador Billy Modise by LINDIWE SISULU, MP, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, on Tuesday at OR Tambo building, Pretoria
ON BEHALF of our government and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, I would like to thank all of you who have come to share their grief with us and mourn with the family.
We thank you for also taking the time to use the opportunity to enlighten South Africans about this somewhat reserved, but amazing son of our country.
Our condolences to the family of our leader and colleague, ambassador Billy Modise.
President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a Special Official Funeral (category 1) for Modise, an honour bestowed upon distinguished persons by the president and indeed befitting a recipient of the National Order of Luthuli.
This is hard as it comes fast on the heels of the departures of other outstanding leaders of our Struggle and servants of our people and diplomats – Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Zola Skweyiya, George Nene, Faith Radebe and Eddie Funde.
We will endeavour to live up to the ethos and dedication, hard work, honesty and selflessness that defined this great leader.
He had the characteristic composure of the sage he was. He possessed an extraordinary calm passion which many a time helped him to discharge the necessary accuracy of expression and judgement on complex issues.
He had the ability to listen intently to everyone. In his cool and calm way, he was endowed with an eye of reason that penetrated seemingly hard and unbreakable edifices.
In his interactions he never assumed nature had made any distinction between human beings – between the highly and the lowly, the mighty and the weak, the royalty and the ordinary; the imperial and the commoner. Everyone felt special in his presence. Behind this absence of arrogance lay a solid soul that made him to an unfaltering, unwavering and committed freedom fighter. Behind his congenial personality was a reliable, meticulous and steadfast perfectionist who drew even the most snobbish and arrogant people to mellow and follow his instructions.
Uncle Billy, as he was fondly called by us, joined the ANC when the vibrant students of Fort Hare answered the clarion call to join the ranks of the struggling masses.
From then on, he never spared himself. He refused to be a bystander when legions of apartheid armed policemen continued to spill blood of the innocent and defenceless oppressed people; when his people continued to wallow in grinding poverty and wretchedness; when the wealth of his beloved country continued to make whites super rich when his own people, his neighbours and friends were condemned to perpetual destitution.
Uncle Billy left the country, responding to the call from the ANC for the youth to seek better and more effective ways to challenge the brutality of the apartheid regime and respond resolutely to speed up the liberation of our people. He tirelessly mobilised, especially the Nordic countries to be the true partners of our liberation struggle.
As chief of state protocol, Modise enhanced the prestige and standing of our country. In him other countries saw a South Africa that was confident without being arrogant. A country that exhibited a true spirit of humanity and that was a natural ally for a world that must attain peace, stability, democracy and prosperity for all its citizens.
We are poorer with the passing on of our leader, our father, our uncle, our comrade and our colleague as we face the many challenges that lie ahead. Let us find solace and inspiration in the words: “The Hero dies, but his memory lives on”.
The national poet SEK Mqhayi wrote a seminal poem about the sinking of the SS Mendi. He addressed the poem to the deaths of South African soldiers en route to Germany to fight in World War I. He writes that South Africa sent its finest sons to wage the war and thus sacrificed them. He asks a rhetorical question: If we had not sacrificed them, who else would have qualified for the task and national assignment?
In our context, we sent the finest of us into exile, to academic institutions abroad, into the diplomatic environment as ANC representatives, to the diplomatic world of a new democratic state, to our protocol section to teach all and sundry what to do and how to do it.
Fate protected him from the hazards of exile, diligence cushioned him from the evil hand of apartheid assassins and divine providence lifted him out of the perils of life and allowed him to serve us.
A gentleman par excellence, who combined the rare traits of a skilful negotiator with those of an astute activist. A diligent man with the master’s touch. A Picasso in the art of diplomacy with his gentle hand. A humanist, an internationalist, a devout father and a loving husband. He was an all-in-one.
A true public servant of immense resolve to serve and make a lasting difference in the lives of those he touched. Through his work he has given rise to a new generation of young people who would hopefully emulate his life.
Uncle Billy was one of a galaxy of stars who played a key role in the evolution of our Foreign Policy under the overall guidance of OR Tambo. Led by Johny Makhathini and later Thabo Mbeki, this team orchestrated the isolation of apartheid South Africa, its expulsion from the UN and the declaration of apartheid as a crime against humanity.
Even though he struggled with the resort to arms, Uncle Billy was nonetheless guided by a firm understanding of the complex interaction and the mutually supportive nature of the four pillars of our struggle for liberation.
His work in Sweden and the broader Nordic community will always stand out as having been pivotal in forging a formidable partnership with the Nordics in the global anti-apartheid solidarity movements.
Uncle Billy’s ties to the sister people of Namibia ran deep. He worked at the Namibia Institute in Lusaka where he became part of preparing many Namibian leaders who are playing key roles in reconstructing their country.
A proud African patriot. A panAfricanist who would always urge us from the beyond to understand how inextricably linked we are to this continent. He would urge us to see the advancement of Africa as the centrepiece of our work. He understood that our pride in ourselves is a precondition for the respect we expect others to show us.
We should never betray this vision as we continue to advance our system of international relations.