On your Marks
A whirlwind romance in the ’70s while a student at Wits University, followed almost immediately by marriage, led to Lana Marks leaving her homeland. Now she’s back as the US ambassador to SA, writes Belinda Pheto
We meet Lana Marks at her official residence in Waterkloof, Pretoria. The room we’re in has the feel of a spa or a meditation centre. It’s very quiet. Two lit candles on the table are flanked by two large framed photographs: one of Marks with US President Donald Trump at the White House, the other of the new US ambassador to SA surrounded by her family.
Marks has sent a polite message via her officials from the US information office to let us know she’s running late. When she arrives she answers my greeting in effortless Xhosa, which she says is a little rusty after being out of SA for 40 years. She was born and grew up locally and seems to have kept in touch with her roots.
She elects to have her photo taken before we speak and is the epitome of icy, regal calm.
This is her first diplomatic posting but she moves as though she is used to projecting an ambassadorial air.
Back in the sparsely furnished interview room, she explains the minimal seating (two couches and a chair), saying she is still waiting for her furniture to arrive from her home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Her husband Neville and son Martin (she also has a daughter back in the US) have accompanied her to SA and will live with her at the ambassador’s residence in Pretoria for as long as she is the US government’s representative here.
Martin sits in throughout the interview and pays close attention, occasionally deflecting his mother from potentially contentious topics.
Lana Bank was born in East London in 1953 and attended Clarendon High School for Girls.
She met Neville Marks, 14 years her senior, whom she describes as “an accomplished professor of medicine and psychiatry and an Olympic chess player”, while she was studying towards a business degree at Wits University. Theirs was a whirlwind courtship and she gave up her studies to accompany the doctor abroad.
“I left SA in May 1976, a day after getting married,” she says. “He proposed when we had been dating for just two weeks and we got married four months later. If any of my kids were to tell me they want to do that, I wouldn’t allow it.”
Her face lights up when she talks about her husband. “He is a very lovely man, very kind and caring,” she says fondly.
Marks has visited SA 16 times since her departure in 1976. Her last visit was in January 2016, just before her candidacy for US ambassador was announced.
“I’m really excited to be back in my country of birth and the country I grew up in,” she says. “I’m thrilled to see SA so vibrant, with a thriving democracy — just like the US.”
She says she hit the ground running as soon as she arrived in SA last month and has an arduous schedule of meetings day and night.
“As you might know, my vetting took almost two-and-a-half years, so I’m trying to make up for all the time. At the moment, I work at least 15 hours every day.”
She had no previous ambitions to enter public service but when Trump told her of his plans for her, she says she was “delighted and honoured” and felt worthy of the role.
“I felt that everything I had done in the past was compatible with this. As a female entrepreneur, I built a respected global brand.”
Any controversial decision made by Trump inevitably draws criticism and Marks’s appointment has been no exception.
Almost every media announcement about her posting contained the words “handbag designer”. Many were scathing about her lack of experience as well as her social connections to Trump via the exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where both are members.
Marks says she hasn’t let this get to her. “Sometimes I would just smile and other times I would just laugh,” she says of all the “bag lady” comments from hacks.
“There was so much information and I couldn’t respond at the time. I’m an entrepreneur. I identified a niche market and started a global brand of high-end handbags. I’m much more than a handbag designer. I’m the CEO and owner of a well-respected brand I built myself.”
It is to be expected that anyone who is suddenly launched into a brand-new role would seek advice from old hands in the field.
Marks says she counts herself lucky to have three close female friends who previously served as US ambassadors in various countries. She won’t reveal their names but says they gave her great tips.
“One of the things they all told me is to make sure that I get terrific robes [dressing gowns] for all the times I’ll get the late-night calls. That advice came in very handy because I’ve had quite a number of those calls since taking office.
“My husband also bought me two lovely robes as a present. They are very beautiful, thick, very comfortable and suitable.”
Marks may not have experience as an ambassador but she has a natural aptitude for diplomacy. “Work in progress” is a phrase she relies on. She will admit that high crime, gender-based violence and other pressing problems in SA are of concern, but won’t be drawn into any comment on South African government officials or policies.
“President Ramaphosa and his cabinet are really trying hard to deal with all the challenges they inherited and I’m excited to be here with the mandate to help increase programmes and trade opportunities between the two countries.”
As US ambassador, she is the US president’s highest-ranking representative in SA and her key role is to co-ordinate the activities of the foreign service officers and staff serving under her as well as to have oversight of representatives of other US agencies in the country.
“In SA we have 28 US agencies represented and I’m responsible for all of them,” she says. “So my job is really not about attending and hosting parties or cutting ribbons. Come to think of it, I’ve not cut any ribbons since I took office although I have attended a couple of events.”
She says she will advocate for the advancement of programmes that support women and fight the scourge of gender-based violence in SA.
She has facts and figures at her fingertips. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested more than R19m to support SA’s reinstatement of the specialised sexual offences courts to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes, she says.
The US has also partnered with the department of social development to train social workers at the Gender-Based Violence Command Centre and to better equip them to counsel and prevent men at risk of becoming perpetrators of these types of serious crimes.
Another of her roles, she says, is to maintain and improve relations between the US and SA, “both at government and peopleto-people levels”.
Last week she travelled to KwaZulu-Natal to observe World Aids Day and had high praise for Durban, which reminded her a bit of her home state of Florida.
“Although Miami is out of this world, the beautiful beaches in Durban reminded me of Miami. The Durban climate is also similar to the Miami one. Something else I would like to do here is to increase the number of tourists coming from the US to SA.”
Her duties also include responsibility for the welfare of US citizens living in or visiting SA.
“Much like the CEO of a company, I’m responsible for the strategic direction of the mission. I manage a large team of Americans and South Africans and third-country nationals who are advancing US interests here.”
She doesn’t think she can do it all on her own, however. “I encourage anybody in any position to come forward to me with any ideas that they have on how to help increase all programmes and trade. Please don’t be shy, come forward. We want to move with warp speed. We’ve had relations with SA but we want to have deep relations with SA.”