JONNY STEINBERG: Niël Barnard only adds to the ‘if only’ genre endemic to SA
‘The 1994 settlement has become a site of national wistfulness and fantasy’
Niël Barnard observed the exercise of power in late 20th-century SA from closer quarters than almost anyone else. As head of the National Intelligence Service under PW Botha, he was intimately involved in secret talks with Nelson Mandela. And as a senior government official during the transition to democracy, he watched power change hands from close range. One would thus expect his second memoir, Peaceful Revolution: Inside the War Room at the Negotiations, to be nothing less than riveting. And yet it is such a disappointment. Barnard seems the sort of man unable to think his way out of his own position to imagine the positions of others. A bureaucrat at the negotiation process, he ridicules politicians as vainglorious and lazy and wishes that bureaucrats like him had had more say. A member of the security establishment, he lambasts his principal, FW de Klerk, for not putting the security forces centre stage.If only everyone at the table were more like me, he seems to say, things wo...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.