OBITUARY: Lord Robin Renwick had a pivotal role in SA’s transition to democracy

Lord Robin Renwick, who has died aged 86, was the outstanding British diplomat of his generation. His record of achievements in a long career in the foreign office was extraordinary and unmatched in the post-war era.

Renwick played a prominent role in bringing an end to civil war in Rhodesia, the election of Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe, the successful renegotiation of Britain’s contribution to the European Community budget, a crucial role in the release of Nelson Mandela and SA’s transition to democracy.

In the British foreign office he was known as “Ms Thatcher’s favourite diplomat”. The former Times editor Sir Simon Jenkins, a close friend, called him “the last brilliant UK ambassador in Washington” where he was credited with restoring the “special relationship” with Britain severely strained when president Bill Clinton invited the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to Washington without first denouncing violence by the IRA.

After he retired, the historian Max Hastings, another admirer, lamented that “the calibre of ambassadors has declined since Robin Renwick’s day”. 

Renwick himself, though he loved his time in Washington, always believed that the high point of his career was when British prime minister Margaret Thatcher appointed him ambassador to SA in 1987. Thatcher, as she wrote in her memoirs, believed that apartheid in SA was “if not dead, at least rapidly dying”, but her new ambassador convinced her that “fundamental reform” would never take place while PW Botha was president and they should reach out to other political figures.

Renwick decided that Botha’s most likely successor was the little-known FW de Klerk and threw Britain’s support behind him. In 1989 he was proved right when Botha had a stroke and De Klerk replaced him.

Renwick was one of the few people the new SA president confided in before his historic opening of parliament address on February 2 1990 which unbanned the ANC, freed all political prisoners and committed the government to full, democratic elections. Renwick had sent back word to Thatcher to expect a major announcement but was not sure if it would include Mandela’s release which he and Thatcher had been pressuring the government to do for three years. At midnight he got a call from De Klerk who simply said: “You can tell your prime minister she will not be disappointed.” The next day De Klerk announced Mandela’s imminent release.

Four days later after he came out of prison, Renwick took Mandela to lunch at the Linger Longer restaurant in Johannesburg where, he recounted, Mandela “asked for his best wishes to be passed on to the (British) prime minister”. Then, after a tour of the tables, he disappeared into the kitchen to thank the staff.

After that they met regularly, once in Mandela’s tiny Soweto home and Renwick arranged for him to meet Thatcher in July 1990 for lunch in Number 10 Downing Street. One of his favourite stories, told with his hallmark chuckle, was of warning Thatcher that Mandela had waited 27 years to tell his story. “You mean I shouldn’t interrupt?” she asked. “Not for the first half-hour,” Renwick advised. Three hours later the journalists waiting outside Downing Street began chanting “Free Nelson Mandela!” 

A dapper, amusing man and brilliant raconteur, Renwick made many friends in SA, where he spent every Christmas and New Year (he was due to fly to SA in early November this year with his wife, Annie, before he became ill). He held secret talks with Oliver Tambo, the ANC’s exiled leader and supported Helen Suzman, the foremost white anti-apartheid activist whom he greatly admired and whose biography he later wrote.

His role in defusing the often stormy relationship between Mandela and De Klerk, both of whom remained his friends for the rest of their lives, brought him close to leading ANC leaders, including Cyril Ramaphosa, then head of the National Union of Mineworkers, and Desmond Tutu, archbishop of Cape Town.

His next posting, after SA, was as ambassador to Washington, the most sought-after appointment in the foreign office. He was an instant success there, once again making friends in top places. He played tennis with president George Bush Snr, stayed with Henry Kissinger in a log cabin near San Francisco and James Baker, the secretary of state, introduced him to baseball.

He was a prolific author and his best-selling book, A Journey with Margaret Thatcher: Foreign Policy Under the Iron Lady, was widely hailed as a remarkably candid insider account of the Iron Lady’s performance on the world stage. His own memoir, Not Quite A Diplomat, was a humorous, self-deprecating look-back at the key events of his 40-year career, with fascinating portraits of Mandela, Mugabe, George Bush Snr, the Clintons and Thatcher. His final book, The Intelligent Spy’s Handbook, was published shortly before he died.

After his retirement from the foreign office, Renwick was elevated to the House of Lords and made use of his huge range of contacts to carve out a highly successful — and lucrative — new career in the City of London and business.

His friend Johann Rupert appointed him to the board of Richemont, the luxury goods company, and he was an adviser to the banks Robert Fleming and JPMorgan. He held frequent dinners for visiting statesmen and I remember one he gave for a senior SA figure — and future president — to introduce him to the heads of some of the leading mining companies in the world, including Anglo American and Rio Tinto. The market value of the companies in the room, I calculated, added up to more than $200bn, all of them existing or potential investors in SA. 

No-one other than Renwick, could have done that.

• Ivan Fallon is a former editor of the Sunday Times of London