Colonel Rocklyn Williams passed away in his sleep from natural causes last Sunday at the age of 44. Soldier, policymaker, government official, civil-society activist, academic, teacher, freedom fighter and father, he made an indelible impact on everyone he met.
At the age of 18 he joined Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) and continued to serve the African National Congress all his life. By the 1980s he was working as an MK commander in the Johannesburg area, while completing philosophy and teaching degrees at Wits University.
He later went on to teach at secondary schools. At the same time he joined the then-South African defence force, with the aim of gaining intelligence for MK.
This dangerous double life led to his detention under the Internal Security Act in 1986 and he was tortured and kept in solitary confinement for a year.
After his release, he went into exile with his wife Alison Button. From Lusaka, Zambia, he continued to work for MK intelligence, carrying out a number of risky missions into South Africa.
With the onset of negotiations to end apartheid, like many ANC cadres, he began to prepare for post-apartheid South Africa and completed a PhD in sociology at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom.
On his return, Williams became the first coordinator of the Military Research Group, an ANC-linked think-tank that played a formative role in establishing what was to become national defence policy.
In 1994 he entered the new South African National Defence Force as a colonel responsible for operational strategy. Two years later, he helped to establish the Defence Secretariat, where he carried out the defence review, undoubtedly the most consultative and innovative defence-policy process this country has ever seen.
While in the government he retained a keen academic and teaching interest. Williams was a part-time senior lecturer at Wits’s graduate school of public and development management where he set up programmes in defence management. Later, he assisted in extending these to the rest of Southern Africa.
Williams combined a deep commitment to democracy with a dedication to military professionalism and brought the two together when assisting other countries in defence management during transitions to democracy.
He left the government in 1999, but continued to play an advisory role — notably as member of the Moerane commission of inquiry into defence intelligence. He also remained active in the defence reserve.
Williams joined the Institute for Security Studies and later SaferAfrica, before becoming an independent consultant which led him to assist in transformation processes in countries such as Ghana, Somalia, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Sri Lanka. He also became the first chairperson of an Africa-wide network of organisations dealing with security-sector reform.
At the time of his death he was working with Professor Kader Asmal, chair of the parliamentary committee on defence, on a major policy review and was involved in detailed planning for the transformation of the reserve force, where he retained the rank of colonel.
Williams was often described as ”larger than life” and people were sometimes initially unnerved by his irreverence, down-to-earth language, informal dress (he never possessed a tie, let alone a suit) and love of a good party. They soon came to appreciate his incisive intellect, problem-solving abilities, deep understanding and commitment.
He thought of himself as a soldier, above all else. He was also a legendary teacher, equally at home with PhD candidates, generals or school students.
Although he had a deep understanding of European and United States politics and culture, he was above all an African. He loved African culture and its social and intellectual life, the African bush and its animals (he was something of an expert on Cape tortoises). Equally at home with princes and peasants, given the choice, he would seek out the latter in taverns and roadside restaurants.
He never really thought of himself as white and the political angst of the ”white left” was a mystery to him: he simply saw himself as a South African revolutionary.
Several hundred years ago, when humanism impelled the European renaissance, the ideal man was one who could master the arts of soldiering, statecraft, philosophy and letters. Williams was such a person for our African renaissance. He is succeeded by two daughters, Kent and Savanna.
The funeral service will take place at St Catherine’s Anglican Church, Bramley, Johannesburg on January 31 at 2pm.