Media
Reviews:
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[Wolvaardt] was pivotal in the negotiations between the Dept of
Foreign Affairs and UNISA which led to the creation of the UNISA
Centre for Latin American Studies in 1984. This book is particularly
useful to anyone interested in South Africa's foreign relations with
the countries of Latin America. Essentially, the book is a collection
of memoirs. Memoirs by South African diplomats are all to rare. It is
thus fortunate for all interested in South Africa's relations with
Latin America that one of the few to have published such memoirs is a
diplomat who spent most of his time abroad in Latin America and most
of his time in South Africa at the Latin American Desk (now
Directorate) at the Dept of Foreign Affairs. The period covered in the
book (1969-1998) is the period during which the author served as a
diplomat. The bulk of the period reflects a difficult time in
South Africa's foreign relations under the apartheid government, then
through the country's own abertura and the first four or five years
under a democratically elected government.
The author tells his story of his admission as a cadet to the Dept of
Foreign Affairs, his first postings as a junior diplomat, his
experiences during some difficult moments during the apartheid regime,
culminating with his expulsion as Chargé d'Affaires in Argentina and
the severing of diplomatic ties between that country and South Africa.
Then, after some difficult years, he was part of the transition,
leading to him to accompany President FW de Klerk on an official visit
to Latin America in 1993 and being received with open arms in
Argentina! He then recounts his appointment at SA Ambassador to Brazil
in 1993 and his assignment to open an embassy in Mexico, where he then
served as ambassador from 1994 to 1997.
Half the pleasure of this book lies in the amount of very interesting
photographs. There are 32 pages of photographs, mostly with two or
three per page, usually with detailed and informative captions.
In the absence of any official account of South Africa relations with
Latin America in the period 1969 to 1998, Wolvaardt's book is
essential reading for anyone interested in the subject. And, if an
official account ever does appear, these memoirs will remain a
valuable complement to them.
Zélia Roelofse-Campbell - Head Unisa Centre for Latin
America Studies
Unisa Latin America Report vol 22 numbers 1 & 2 2006
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Pieter Wolvaardt joined the South African Department of Foreign
Affairs in January 1969 as — to use his own expression — a
somewhat arrogant ‘cadet’ and closed his door almost 30 years
later, after several posts as ambassador in Latin America, on 31 March
1998.
The service to his country of this Free Stater from
Smithfield
took him through two highly divergent eras. First through the
apartheid years, when it was his duty to try and sell a dubious
internal policy abroad. That resulted in the low points, such as being
declared persona non grata in
Argentina
after cross-border attacks by the South African Defence Force on ANC
bases in neighbouring countries, and eventually emotional burnout.
Then there was the post-apartheid era, when he had the privilege and
opportunity as ambassador of the ‘new’
South Africa
’ to open an embassy in
Mexico
. It is the way that Wolvaardt describes the challenges as a diplomat
in two divergent eras’s which shows his skills as a writer. This is
also clear in the manner in which he weaves a golden thread of subtle
humour throughout the book.
That same subtlety is used to describe his boss, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Pik Botha. One cannot help to make a certain
assumption of his view of the minister from his choice of a number of
anecdotes about him.
Although the risk is run of becoming anecdotal when writing over a
period of almost 30 years, Wolvaardt — who now lives in Grahamstown
— manages to use his knowledge of political science to evaluate and
place events in an historical context. The book does not contain
sensational revelations, but for the first time gives insight into the
events surrounding the abduction and murder
of South African Ambassador Eddie Dunn in
El Salvador
in 1979. It also sketches accurately diplomatic circumstances such as
South Africa
’s difficult relationship position with
Argentina
and
Britain
during the Falkland War in 1982.
The book reads easily, is interesting and is meant for the
connoisseur.
Piet van Niekerk, Die Burger (
Cape Town
)
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Pieter Wolvaardt is one of the few South African diplomats who
represented the country while the country was still the skunk of the
world, and then later after the fall of apartheid when everybody
wanted to be South Africa’s friend. Wolvaardt, an expert on
South America was the SA Ambassador in Buenos Aires when the
Argentinian Government decided to terminate relations because of
attacks by the SA Defence Force on ANC camps in Zimbabwe, Botswana and
Zambia. He had to leave Argentina in seven days...
He gives substantial attention to the Falkland War and the abduction
and murder of Eddie Dunn, the SA Ambassador in El Salvador. From A
Diplomat’s Story it is clear that the diplomats and securocrats
did not see eye to eye. He writes how ex-President PW Botha berated
heads of mission in 1986 in the Union Buildings in Pretoria because
officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs were perceived not to
be loyal enough. Dr. Niel Barnard, the then head of National
Intelligence, made it clear that heads of mission must accept that
they would not always be informed about what was happening in their
countries of accreditation . . . Even Mr Pik Botha, the then
Foreign Minister, bluntly criticised the diplomats during a session at
the Government Guest House in Waterkloof. He questioned their loyalty
and stated that those who did not want to work full-out to ‘crush
the ANC’ should consider resigning. “I can only believe he was
under severe pressure from the President,” Wolvaardt writes… “I
have no doubt that the ANC was less enthusiastically opposed by some
diplomats than the security establishment liked. Securocrats
apparently couldn’t understand that there wasn’t the slightest
chance of defeating the ANC.” Wolvaardt says that he and many other
SA diplomats already realised in 1982 that South Africa had painted
itself into a corner.
He became South Africa’s first ambassador in Mexico in 1994 and was
later appointed by Mandela to work as non-resident ambassador to Costa
Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama.
Sarel van der Walt, Beeld
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The phrase — stranger than fiction — is so often applicable to our
society today. Why should one read fiction if such fantastical
circumstances present themselves to us every day.
Can you imagine being a diplomat pre-1994, where you were representing
Apartheid South Africa, only to be confronted by representing
post-1994
South Africa
with his democratically elected government?
Well, fortunately you don’t have to imagine this because our
author experienced exactly these circumstances. Many personal
experiences are related as one would expect from any career diplomat
over a 30 years career. But it really becomes interesting when the
shortcomings of the present day are discussed.
The author does convey his own point of view but seems to do so
without personal negativity creeping in. Some of his insights do
however, reflect the same problems that are being experienced in most
spheres of our present days government be it at local, provincial or
national level.
This is a most enlightened read coming from a particular perspective,
and also well crafted. Hopefully some of our present day members of
the Department of Foreign Affairs will read and reflect on the present
day shortcomings presented here. This book can definitely also, with
many others, contribute to the building of a better nation for all of
us.
Pretoria
News
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A book that is a must read for every South African
The Herald,
Port Elizabeth
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Pieter Wolvaardt’s autobiography is a welcome contribution by a
retired member of the South African foreign service to a body of
knowledge about the formulation of South African foreign policy over a
30-year period spanning the last years of white rule and the first
years of democracy in
South Africa
. Wolvaardt’s book
therefore joins . . . the officially commissioned History
of South African Department of Foreign Affairs 1927-1993, for
which the author also had access to the archives . . . Wolvaardt was
himself a participant in South African diplomacy over the 30 years he
deals with [and] is able to provide very
personal insights and opinions from the perspective of a career
foreign service officer who made the transition from one era to
another.
His is a light-hearted picture of diplomatic life as a South African
representative, which contrasts the personal isolation and rejection
suffered by officers and their spouses during the apartheid years, and
the sudden universal acceptance of the same individuals after the
democratic elections of 1994.
In this he touches on the oft-discussed question of the role of the
career diplomat as a representative of his country as much as of the
government of the day. It has been said that those who choose a career
in the South African Department of Foreign Affairs before 1994 made a
conscious decision to defend apartheid. However, Wolvaardt illustrates
that those who did enter the service, did so not as Soviet-style
automatons to mouth the propaganda of the day, but as professionals
with a vocation and a patriotic desire to serve their country . . .
The role of the foreign service officer was and still is, much wider
than the purveyor of officially sanctioned information; it involves
conducting the country’s international relations in a variety of
ways for example, in private, engaging organisations and individuals .
. . The value of the talents, experience and professional skills that
serving career officers provided in 1994 seems to have been better
understood by the incoming ANC government that by academic critics.
Wolvaardt, like many other officers, bridged the transition to
democracy between 1994 and 1997 as
South Africa
’s ambassador to
Mexico
, a country until then closed to formal diplomatic relations.
[His] missions often entailed the most trying personal circumstances.
In one instance in May 1986, Wolvaardt, as South African charge
d’affaires, was declared persona non grata by the government of
Argentina
and expelled at short notice. This followed attacks b y the SADF on
ANC targets in
Zimbabwe
,
Botswana
and
Zambia
. This illustrates how foreign service officers had to bear the
consequences of the ill-advised and internationally repugnant actions
of their government and its agencies, over which they had little or no
influence . . . Dramatic and tragic incidents such as the kidnapping
and death of RSA’s ambassador in El Salvador, Eddie Dunn; South
Africa’s response to the Falklands War; and the visits of Paraguayan
dictator Alfredo Stroessner to South Africa and FW de Klerk to Latin
America . . .
South African Journal of International Affairs
|
The book contains a lot about the Falklands War that has never been
published and details the lives of
Afrikaans speakers who made their homes in
Argentina
and
Paraguay
. He details clashes between the South African military and the
Department of Foreign Affairs in the PW Botha era and the swing
towards the military side.
Saturday Dispatch,
East London
|
In 1986
Argentina
broke diplomatic relations with
South Africa
after the SADF launched ground assaults by Special Forces against ANC
targets in
Zimbabwe
and
Botswana
, and Air Force jets struck ANC targets in
Zambia
. Because of these incidents SA’s head of mission in
Buenos Aires
was declared persona non grata and expelled from the country.
His name is Pieter Wolvaardt, a career diplomat in the Department of
Foreign Affairs. For the past five years he’s been living in
Grahamstown after retiring from foggy bottom. It was here that he
decided to write his memoirs and record his career as a diplomat.
Grahamstown
|
From pariah years to normalisation, Pieter Wolvaardt represented the
interests of the SA government of the day. His expulsion from
Argentina
; the kidnap-murder of Ambassador Eddie Dunn in
El Salvador
, the perversion of diplomacy to defend the indefensible;
eccentricities of politicians past and present — all are described
with a light touch.
The Star Tonight
|
There were few more difficult jobs on the international diplomatic
circuit than being a South African diplomat in the 40 years to the
early 1990s. To most governments,
South Africa
was regarded as being somewhere between a highly questionable place
and a pariah as it pushed ahead with its apartheid policy. Many of
South Africa
’s better diplomats – who forged excellent and enduring
relationships while serving abroad — had misgivings about the
policy but went about their business in a thoroughly professional way.
They then helped to lay a framework for the handover of power in 1994
that signalled apartheid’s end.
Much has been written about the handover but little, if anything,
about life in the diplomatic service before and after the event.
Pieter Wolvaardt’s new book, A
Diplomat’s Story –
Apartheid and Beyond 1969-1998, is an important addition to
material covering 25 years before 1994 and several years thereafter.
It is a personal account of his 29 years in
South Africa
’s diplomatic service. In his final years as a diplomat he served
Nelson Mandela’s government as ambassador to
Mexico
and non-resident ambassador to
Costa Rica
,
Guatemala
,
Honduras
and
Panama
.
The book has the benefit of experience, humour and telling it how it
was without pulling punches amid the highs and lows — including
expulsion from
Argentina
in 1986 following South African attacks on ANC targets in
Zambia
— of diplomatic life in a variety of countries, including
Britain
. There is the ‘old guard’ diplomat who told a senior
South Africa
official after the handover he was feeling stressed. He was told in no
uncertain terms by the official, a senior member of the African
National Congress, that he would know about stress only if he had been
a political prisoner. There is no answer to that.
Wolvaardt, from an apartheid-oriented background and referring to the
immediate years after the handover, writes:’ Despite the suspicion
and ill-will from both sides, I never once came across an “old
guard” diplomat who had undermined the new government in the
execution of his or her duties. Why this is doubted, I find hard to
understand. ‘. . . The rapid changes undeniably damaged morale at
many levels. On the other hand, I found scores of new diplomats and
other civil servants who were just as competent as the best in the old
regime and who often had a greater flexibility of thought.’
Wolvaardt’s book should be required reading at least for foreign
diplomats and correspondents working in
South Africa
or dealing with the country.
John Owen-Davies: Former foreign correspondent and bureau chief in
Africa, Asia and the
Middle East
.
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South Africa’s ambassador in several Latin American countries,
Pieter Wolvaardt, gives in his book A Diplomats’ Story: Apartheid and Beyond 1969–1998 a full
insight how South Africa from
the 60s and in particular the 80s became the skunk of the world. When
Wolvaardt was sent to
Argentina
in 1986, SA’s dubious internal policy was exceedingly indefensible.
Of the 82 countries who signed the international convention on the
suppression and punishment of apartheid,
Argentina
was the only one who allowed a South African ambassador in its
territory. But when the South African Air Force soon thereafter
attacked ANC bases in
Zimbabwe
,
Zambia
en
Botswana
with converted French fighters and helicopters, Wolvaardt was declared
persona non grata.
Die Burger
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.
..
