Total Onslaught by De Wet Potgieter

Author:De Wet Potgieter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Total Onslaught: Apartheid’s Dirty Tricks Exposed
ISBN: 9781770222311
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Published: 2012-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

12

The Joker in the pack

IN the corridors of parliament, Kobie Coetsee was frequently referred to as the Joker in the pack (though Kobie was no jester!) because he was so seldom seen and no one ever knew what he was going to come up with, where or when. In truth, it wasn’t all that difficult for him to disappear, since he was physically quite a small man.

But Kobie ensured that he would merit an honourable mention in South Africa’s history by his pioneering role in opening negotiations with a jailed Nelson Mandela. What he achieved from the day that he made Winnie Mandela’s acquaintance on an aircraft travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town changed the future of South Africa irrevocably.

By endorsing Coetsee’s secret talks with Mandela, PW Botha effectively gave him carte blanche to initiate the peace process with the ANC.

What went awry in Kobie Coetsee’s later life that would cause him to leave the former security forces scandalously in the lurch no one will ever know, since he died without explaining his actions. Perhaps he fell prey to an inflated sense of importance, being able to claim that he had handled Mandela. Some of his colleagues and acquaintances certainly gained the impression that the regard in which Mandela and the ANC held him, led him to believe that he and no one else could negotiate a fair deal for amnesty at CODESA.

That was the only conclusion that could be arrived at to possibly explain why, up to the very last moment, he had misled the likes of General Johan van der Merwe, General Magnus Malan and Niel Barnard, promising them that ‘everything is under control’ when, in fact, the amnesty process was already in the toilet.

The way in which Mandela in later years referred with affection and respect to ‘Oom Kobie’ in parliament was a strong indication of his contribution, as an Afrikaner, to the peace process.

But among his former colleagues in the government and within the ranks of the defence force and police, it was another story. The way that he had abandoned them never stopped rankling with former cops and soldiers and their loved ones. It was also notable that, in later years, ex-ministers spoke of him in public with little respect. It was a case of dog-eat-dog, with the likes of Roelf Meyer, Hernus Kriel, Pik Botha and Magnus all being less than flattering about Kobie Coetsee.

As CODESA entered its death throes, Kobie simply fell apart, destroying any chance of blanket amnesty through his vacillation. In the final hours before the question of amnesty had to be thrashed out, Kobie was still walking around, making empty promises to all and sundry.

The result of the ‘indecisive’ Kobie Coetsee’s treachery was that Roelf Meyer had to step in at the eleventh hour to help manage the crisis. He was forced to work through the night, caucusing with members of the police, defence force and National Intelligence about how to negotiate the burning question of general amnesty with the ANC the very next day.

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