Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Dedicated to South Africa
8 ‘You now have a much more hopeful prospect for the future’
FAMED former British diplomat Lord Robin Renwick, in South Africa for the launch of his book How To Steal A Country, chuckles when asked about the characterisation which often precedes his name.
Far from the image cultivated by supporters of former president Jacob Zuma, and Black First, Land First, the British ambassador to South Africa between 1987 and 1991, says he is not some bogeyman pulling the strings behind the scenes for “white monopoly capital”.
“The latest one is that I had asked Julius Malema to go back to the ANC, which is far from the truth,” said Renwick.
He said the BLF, and “similar propaganda organisations, live in a world of fantasy”.
Renwick is no stranger to the region, having been ambassador to Rhodesia in 1977, later becoming an adviser to Lord Christopher Soames, the last governor of that country, and then Lord Peter Carrington during the Lancaster House talks which ended white rule.
“I met Julius Malema once, I had a long meeting with him with a lot of people in London, at his request, and had a discussion about all kinds of things.
“For instance, we advised him very strongly to stop talking in terms of violence and race-based policies.
“I said the policy of nationalisation, which he was advocating, did not work anywhere else in the world. We actually had a positive discussion about that with him saying that there were other solutions possible,” said Renwick.
Describing it as “interesting”, Renwick said he and Malema did not agree on anything.
“I have a completely different point of view from him but I would like to pay tribute to the role he has played against state capture.”
Over a cup of Rooibos tea, which an estimated R200 billion was stolen from the South African state, in the words of former finance minister and current Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who assisted with verifying some of the facts.
“All the passages about state capture were reviewed by Pravin Gordhan, so I’m very confident that they’re really accurate,” said Renwick.
He joked that his friend, the author Wilbur Smith, who had read the book, told him that it read like a crime novel which, in the end, turned into a good story.
And unlike those who have bequeathed on him the powers of a puppet master, Renwick said going into the ANC’s December elective conference, he had no idea who would win the leadership contest.
In the end, Ramaphosa won by a slim margin of 149 votes out of about 5 200 votes cast by delegates.
“Clearly, Zuma did not want to resign, he put up a huge fight not to resign, but quite a lot of people who had supported him up to that point swung over to Cyril… thank goodness.
“In my opinion, the last nine years have been a wasted decade. There’s been no increase in e mployment. There’s been hardly any economic growth, and everybody on average has got poorer, rather than better off.
“You now have a much more hopeful prospect for the future
because the constitution was already being undermined in every way you can think of but also it was under more serious threat.
“I don’t think that the Zupta regime could have continued without a head-on attack on the constitution… they would certainly have wanted to curb the press.”
Renwick said his book was dedicated to former public protector Thuli Madonsela, Gordhan, the South African press, the judiciary and the country’s civil society.