possessions
Peter Dickson
How the mighty have fallen. Once he was a president who ruled with an iron finger. Today PW Botha is a pitiful old man, forced to pawn his prized trinkets in order to pay for his stubbornness.
A week before his sentencing in the George Magistrates Court for refusing to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, former state president Botha was left literally scratching for cash.
Following his sentence of 12 months or R10 000, Botha opted against teaming up with Collin Chauke, and instead decided to sell off more than 100 pieces of memorabilia he had acquired during his presidency – including a crocodile- shaped nutcracker.
Many of these choice apartheid pieces were abruptly snatched from the George Museum, where they had been on loan
Abandoned by all but his new wife, Barbara, and a rich old friend, who says he will only help out if the Groot Krokodil begs the favour, Botha is already struggling with a legal bill reputed to be at least R2-million.
Like many others who reached bottom dollar, Botha opted to raise funds through an auction of old trophies and gifts he says were competing for space with oriental vases in his Wilderness home.
But in his desperation, many of the 140 items he selected to put under the auctioneer’s hammer had been among 1 000 collectables “on loan” to the George Museum.
Fanus Botes of the George Heritage Trust says the most precious items – apparently a bunch of carved ivory objects and Roman pottery – had been valued at as much as R30 000.
Botha either sold or gave away many of the items to family, friends and staff. But he was forced to hand back a dagger, dating from 300BC and given to him by former Israeli general Moshe Dayan, after protests for its return to Israel.
George Museum curator Thelma Vergoes- Houwens wasn’t too happy, though. Typical of Botha’s high-handed career style, he neglected to tell her about the auction, she said.
The Western Cape government, however, gave her no instructions to acquire any of the items under the hammer.
Come auction day, a week before his sentencing, only the curious elderly and a smid- gen of serious bidders attended the auction.
And the hammer was cruel. Auctioneer Louis van Rensburg wouldn’t say how much money the auction fetched, but a framed snapshot of Botha went for R20 and a 150g gold nugget embedded in perspex fetched R10 000. Most of the silverware was snapped up by Hartmut Wendt, the biggest buyer at the auction.
A brief list of the items provides an intriguing vignette of Botha’s presidency: item 113, crocodile nutcracker; item 92, Unita jewellery box; item 57, gift to the late Mrs Elize Botha from Unita; item 6, photo of Dr DF Malan; and item 24, gift from Jonas Savimbi.
Said a George valuator this week: “A lot of the value of the collectables lies more in the novelty of possessing something that once belonged to a former head of state – more like a conversation piece, if you like.”