Roelf’s regrets about the Zuma years
He served under three successive presidents — PW Botha, FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela — and was in at the birth of democracy. For Roelf Meyer, the raising of the new flag for the first time three decades ago signalled something beautiful.
“I will never forget that moment when they first raised our new flag. It was a second after midnight on Saturday April 27 1994. Seeing that I felt I was witnessing the birth of the new South Africa,” Meyer told the Sunday Times this week.
“White dominance of 342 years officially came to an end that moment when our flag was raised for the first time. I remember feeling very excited. There was this overwhelming feeling that for the first time we as South Africans of all races were really free of the yoke of apartheid,” said Meyer, the National Party’s chief negotiator at Codesa, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa.
Meyer, who forged a close relationship with his Codesa counterpart from the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, remembers the initial years of democracy as a time of great promise.
“It was an era of growth, of a blooming economy under a new soft and friendly world view. Mr Mandela was at the centre of this new love the outside world had for South Africa; but we must also remember the peaceful way we transitioned as a country. This carried a lot of weight when it came to the opinions of the world outside our borders,” Meyer said.
“We really became the flavour of the month It lasted for years.”
Investment poured into the country. “There was this incredible excitement surrounding us as a country. This new dawn breaking economically with the relaxing and removal of sanctions,” Meyer said.
“This period lasted about 10-15 years. Our falling from grace started in around 2009,” he said, referring to the year Jacob Zuma became president.
“Then came Covid and the disintegration of national and provincial infrastructure. Of these three — the period staring in 2009, Covid and our lost infrastructure — only one was unavoidable.”
Meyer says this was a time when South Africa was drained, “financially and emotionally”.
“Our economy lost about 5% of its value in this time. Every single South African is feeling the losses from those days in our pockets right now.”
The work on the great democratic project is far from over, Meyer said.
“It will take time, but it can be done. We have the ability, but it will take strong political leadership. Government must fix service delivery on national and provincial levels. The private sector must get involved and stay involved without being driven by greed. We are a caring community in this land, our starting point in this project should be plain old-fashioned decency.”
Meyer is a proud South African.
“I believe democracy is still standing strong in our country. When I think of democracy I don’t only consider our constitution and the politicians, I think of our people on the wide spectrum of this wonderful nation. We have seen these people stand up every time when our democracy was threatened. I have full faith in us.”
No lazy retirement for this former lawyer, politician, negotiator and lawmaker.
“I still keep busy. The most important hat I still wear is being director of the In Transformation Initiative (ITI),” a nonprofit organisation set up in 2013, according to its website, “to assist and support peacemaking processes in countries in various stages of transition by drawing from the South African experience”.
“In the last little more than a week I visited Ethiopia, Kenya and Dubai,” said Meyer. “You must remember, our South African story is still a benchmark for peaceful transfer of power to the world. As the ITI we use the South African story and example to advise countries.”