Steve Godfrey
THE professional career of Dr Paul Lusaka closely mirrored the recent political history of Southern Africa. A highly respected Zambian, he served variously as a Cabinet minister, plenipotentiary and principal foreign policy adviser to Kenneth Kaunda over three decades.
There are few major events over this period with which he was not intimately involved – from Rhodesian UDI to Lancaster House, as President of the United Nations Council for Namibia, and in early negotiations on South Africa.
Many South Africans know him from their days in Lusaka. A naturally modest man, he would rarely speak about his personal achievements. Often, however, others would tell how he saved senior African National Congress officials from imminent attack, arranged a travel document, or a scholarship for someone in need.
Lusaka had a permanently understated and courteous air about him. But it masked an incisive mind and a superb grasp of human relations. Following the 1994 elections in South Africa, he served as an adviser to the National Peace Secretariat (NPS). I recall how, on his first day in the country, Tony Gildenhuys despatched him to Durban to mediate a taxi conflict. With typical phlegm he accepted, although he had not been in the country, save as an envoy, or a student in the Fifties. He succeeded.
Later, when he was mediating the bloody conflict between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the ANC in Bhambayi, he disappeared for two days into the community. Asked afterwards to explain why he did the manifestly inadvisable, he explained that the entire community had wanted to slaughter a goat for him. He succeeded in getting that peace agreement too.
His skill as a negotiator stemmed from his natural authority and integrity. For the past three years he worked as a Commonwealth expert in South Africa for the NPS, the Training Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs and then Comtask.
The chair of Comtask, Mandla Langa, recently described his “warmth and unflappable, avuncular style” in this paper. Both Comtask and the NPS were voluble and energetic fora. But anyone attending those meetings will testify that when Lusaka spoke, you could hear the proverbial pin drop. He had a knack of getting people back on track, and to essentials.
Lusaka was a true internationalist who always recalled his close connection with Canada (McGill his alma mater, and Canada the country which provided diplomatic training, and where he met his wife, Joan). His list of postings and service, including presidency of the 39th General Assembly, are a travelogue. But he could always tell you the price of maize at home!
His early support of the move to multiparty democracy in Zambia courted unpopularity within parts of Unip. It was a matter of great sadness to him that while he worked with South Africans to entrench democracy, he saw it ebbing away in his own country. He never profited from high public office, and was distressed by the corruption in Zambia.
His untimely death robs his country, and Africa, of a great public servant and distinguished diplomat. He will be missed by many in this country and beyond.
Lusaka died in Washington on November 11. He was 61. A date for a memorial service in Johannesburg will be announced next week.
Steve Godfrey is Commonwealth Development Adviser in South Africa. He worked in South Africa with Paul Lusaka from 1993 to 1996