Van Zyl Slabbert remembered
2010-05-24 11:42
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Johannesburg
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Johannesburg - Family and close friends of former politician Dr Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert on Saturday said goodbye to the Afrikaner leader South Africa never had.
About 200 people packed a large thatched-roof venue to listen to eight moving tributes by family members and friends.
"He was the last great Afrikaner leader," said writer Breyten Breytenbach before closing his tribute with a reading of Slabbert's favourite poem, Vroegherfs, by NP Van Wyk Louw.
ANC politician, Mathews Phosa, delivered the whole of his tribute, except for two sentences, in Afrikaans.
Partnership
"Van Zyl Slabbert was the owner of the word partnership, in which the deeper meaning of talking together, living together, thinking together and doing together was hidden.
"He was a proud Afrikaner who would never exchange his heritage and his language for a pot of lentil soup," said Phosa.
Journalist and political commentator Max du Preez said he was going to Soweto for the match between the Bulls and the Crusaders at Orlando Stadium.
"I wish Van Zyl was still here so that I could take him along. That would combine two of his great passions - rugby and the creation of social cohesion."
Tears flowed freely and continuously over the cheeks of Dr Alex Boraine when he brought tribute to the man who had been a Progressive Party MP along with him and later founded Idasa.
"He had an exceptional intelligence. But there was also a deeper melancholy in him. He was actually cynical and distrustful.
"But there was nothing small and cheap about Van Zyl Slabbert. South Africa lost a leader which the country still has a great need for," said Boraine.
Ill health
Slabbert's daughter, Tania, said she and her brother Riko had held her father's hands when he died.
"We could tell him to go rest in peace."
She said her father had been very ill over the past two years and it was sad that he had started losing his mental clarity, because this was precisely what he had feared the most.
Political expert Harald Pakendorf said in a very personal tribute how during home visits, Slabbert had called for a Bible and had read his favourite Bible texts.
Then they would argue about religion and each would go their own way, he (Pakendorf) as a "doubting believer" and Slabbert as a "doubting unbeliever".
Other tributes were given by Richard Pike, executive head of Adcorp, where Slabbert was the chairperson, and actor Sean Taylor, Slabbert's half-brother.
Member of Africa's white tribe
Well-known Zimbabwean politician Roy Bennet made an unscheduled appearance and paid tribute to a "member of Africa's white tribe who was without baggage."
After the tributes, Taylor asked that the Kris Kristofferson song, Beat the Devil, was played.
It was one of Slabbert's favourites and had sentimental value for the family.
Present at the event were former president Thabo Mbeki's wife Zanele, businessman and prominent ANC figure Cyril Ramaphosa, DA leader Helen Zille, ID leader Patricia de Lille, businessman and political expert Moeletsi Mbeki, fashion designer Marianne Fassler and actress Jana Cilliers.