I do not, as a rule, reply to remarks made about what I write, my view being that if I’ve had my say I should just leave others to have their say. I must, however, make an exception this time because I find myself under directly personal attack.
Douglas Gibson is, I’m afraid, way out of line. He criticises me for having encouraged Van Zyl Slabbert to run for premier of the Western Cape in 1999 with a view to a DP-ANC coalition. This is the exact opposite of the truth. I warned Van that the DP, running a “Fight Back” election campaign, could not possibly support such a stance.
Tony Leon and Lawrie Schlemmer both took the same view, as I recount in my book Foreign Native, which deals with this episode and with my general problem with Van’s post-1994 peregrination. But I have no recollection that Van then backed the ANC. I never heard him do that.
Douglas also goes on at length about Van’s deplorable decision to let down the PFP by resigning at short notice from Parliament in 1987. This is all quite correct. I have criticised Van quite equally for this. It was a huge mistake and was very disloyal to his party colleagues. There was a strange lack somewhere in Van.
He never persevered long with anything and he quite often let his friends down and was then surprised when they were upset. I speak from experience. Quite understandably Helen Suzman would not speak to Van for years after his resignation, but Van was much distressed by this.
However, that is all irrelevant to the point I was making which is that Van was undoubtedly the most talented leader that the Progs/DP/DA ever had. The party could undoubtedly use a leader with such talents now. That is surely indisputable.