Adriaan Vlok, former minister of law and order, pays tribute to an old foe
I WANT to express my sincere condolence to the Slovo family and friends. He was a prominent, valuable and influential member of the ANC/South African Communist Party and he will be sorely missed by them.
From an ideological point of view, we differed fundamentally — he being a dedicated socialist/communist and self-declared atheist. From his actions it was, however, clear that he was not only an ideologue but prepared to work very hard towards achieving his goals.
As we were embroiled in a multifaceted, low-intensity but vicious and bloody “war” against each other for decades, we made a thorough study of him. He was not known as a man to mince his words — he formulated and expressed himself very well.
We welcomed this — he made it easier for us to use in our counter-propaganda against the ANC/SACP.
As chief of staff of MK, he was over many years intimately involved in the planning and directing of the activities of his cadres. We had the impression that he always did this with dedication — he believed in what he was doing, and was not sorry about anything he did. Under his guidance they used every means at their disposal to overthrow the government, while we were doing our level best to prevent it — successfully, if I may say so.
However, when the armed struggle was over and the time for negotiations arrived, he was equally committed to this. Even right in the beginning of the talks at Groote Schuur, Libertas and DF Malan, it was clear that he strongly supported President Nelson Mandela’s attempts to end the armed struggle and the violence. I found him to be pragmatic and realistic — prepared to listen to you. Although I differed fundamentally from him, I respected him.
I believe that it was after he became minister of housing that the harsh realities of our situation really hit him hard. He very soon realised that to develop our people and our country, and to start building houses, you need money – – and to get this, economic development was a prerequisite.
He also realised that it was impossible for the state to care for all the needs of everybody. Therefore he was one of the first ANC members to point out — clearly and directly — that people must pay their rent and service charges and plead for greater private-sector involvement.
I believe he did this because he felt real concern for the plight of the many very poor and destitute people in our country.
And this is how I’ll remember Joe Slovo. He was prepared to work with dedication to achieve his goals. There was no malice or hatred in him towards us — me and other erstwhile “enemies” or opponents in the struggle. He was an ardent advocate of reconciliation and the building of our nation.