Key ambassadorial postings are expected to be announced within the next fortnight. Mduduzi ka Harvey looks at the main contenders
GRATITUDE for services rendered, face-saving and political balancing acts will all have a bearing on key ambassadorial postings expected to be announced by President Nelson Mandela within the next fortnight.
Among those tipped for important jobs are radical churchman Allan Boesak, Mandela’s former right-hand woman Barbara Masekela, and Enos Mabuza, “progressive” former homeland leader.
* Top contender to represent South Africa at the United Nations in Geneva is Boesak, whom Mandela has hinted is in line for the post.
In part, the Capetonian is being rewarded for his vocal opposition to apartheid as a NGK Sendingkerk leader and president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, as well as his spearhead role in the formation and growth of the United Democratic Front.
However, he has proved a liability for the ANC in the Western Cape, where his leadership — imposed by Mandela against the wishes of the party grassroots — failed to draw significant coloured support in the general election.
The director of studies at the South African Institute of International Affairs, Greg Mills, says a Geneva posting may be a face-saving way of sidelining Boesak. “He has not proved to be a success. The easy way out for the party is to remove him.”
Boesak’s lavish lifestyle and proneness to scandal may tell against him, however. Most recently he admitted to the mistaken use of funds by his Foundation for Peace and Justice, after it emerged that a disgruntled Swedish funder had withdrawn its backing.
* Insiders say Masekela is certain to head the South African embassy in Paris, as Mandela’s way of thanking her for many years of service to the ANC.
Her experience as a fundraiser for the organisation would stand her in good stead, Mills added. “Paris is the key place to lobby support from the European Union.”
Head of Mandela’s staff in the Office of the President and known for her forthrightness, independence of thought and sharp political skills, she has been a behind-the-scenes power-broker.
In exile from 1963, Masekela chaired the ANC’s regional political committee in the US, working hard at organising support for the movement. She further honed her diplomatic and political skills as head of the Department of Arts and Culture in Lusaka.
After the ANC was unbanned, Mandela asked her to move to his office, where she played an important role advising him and controlling his schedule. She was on the national executive and served on the ANC’s negotiations commission, but declined nomination to parliament.
* Former Democratic Party leader Zach de Beer (66) is tipped as the South African ambassador to Holland.
Such a move, Mills said, could be a balancing act by the ANC. “They are making sure the government of national unity is representative. It’s also a way of saying thanks for his years of service in liberal politics.”
The youngest-ever MP at 24, De Beer became a founder member of the Progressive Party and was returned to parliament in 1977-80 as Progressive Federal Party MP for Parktown. He was called to lead this party in 1988.
The following year, he played a key role in the formation of the DP. However, he retired after the DP’s disastrous performance in this year’s elections.
* Mandela’s concern to woo the coloured community may also be a factor in the likely appointment of educationist Franklin Sonn (55) as South Africa’s Washington representative at the United Nations.
A former principal who rose to prominence as president of the “coloured” Cape Teachers’ Professional Association, he is currently Peninsula Technikon rector and chairman of the National Education and Training Forum.
Sonn’s posting would also be in recognition of his anti- collaborationist stand under apartheid. He provoked the anger of the Labour Party-dominated House of Representatives while demanding equity in teachers’ salaries and working conditions. In the 1980s he adopted a more high-profile political stance, marching against police brutality alongside Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Said Mills: “He has proved to be very competent, fully involved in high-profile politics and very eloquent.”
Sonn will need all his powers of persuasion in dealing with the Republican-dominated US senate: “He will have to convince them South Africa needs foreign aid,” said Mills.
But Mandela is probably directly rewarding Sonn for his last- ditch bid to help the ANC in the Western Cape. When he came out in their support, it cost him his post on the board of the SABC.
* Former KaNgwane chief minister Enos Mabuza is tipped for the plum job of ambassador to Germany — again as an apparent reward for non-collaboration with apartheid.
Mabuza consistently refused independence and was prominent in the fight against the attempted incorporation of KaNgwane into Swaziland in the early 1980s. His Inyandza National Movement subscribed to the Freedom Charter and was openly sympathetic to the ANC’s internal wing, the UDF.
A thoughtful and articulate man, he moved into business after voluntarily winding down his government in the wake of the ANC’s 1990 unbanning.
* Strongly tipped for the post of High Commissioner in the Court of St James in London is the ANC’s chief representative in the UK for six years and its former chief rep in India, Mendi Msimang (66).
Currently an NEC member, Msimang worked in ex-ANC president Oliver Tambo’s office between 1961 and 1964. In the 1950s he worked in Tambo and Mandela’s law firm in Johannesburg.
His experience equips him for a diplomatic posting: in the UK he had to canvass for assistance for the ANC and more recently, for renewed UK investment and training and development aid for South Africa.
Other contenders for ambassadorial Stanley Mabizela and Josiah Jele, senior ANC members who before the elections were earmarked for senior positions in the civil service.
Mabizela, an NEC member until 1991 and former head of ANC missions in Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, is currently head of the party’s Department of International Affairs. He is tipped to head the Namibian high commission.
Jele, a current NEC member, headed the organisation’s international department in exile and was the chief of the ANC mission to the World Peace Council in Finland. He later worked at ANC headquarters in Lusaka.