Condolences but also criticism of British former PM who once dismissed ANC as 'a typical terrorist organisation
Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela at 10 Downing Street in 1990. Photograph: Georges Dekeerle/Getty Images
The death of Margaret Thatcher provoked both sombre tributes and undisguised glee in South Africa, a country where she found herself on the wrong side of history.
Thatcher joined Ronald Reagan in a policy of "constructive engagement" to seek reform from a government that they saw as a bulwark against Soviet-backed communism in Africa. Refusing to back sanctions, Thatcher infamously dismissed the African National Congress (ANC) as "a typical terrorist organisation".
Her stance became one of the political flashpoints of the 1980s and is now regarded as one of her greatest misjudgments. She was denounced by Britain's anti-apartheid movement, which took to the streets to demand South Africa's isolation. The MP Peter Hain recalled seeing Conservative students wearing "Hang Nelson Mandela" badges on campus.
But the end of the cold war made the bulwark argument obsolete and, like FW de Klerk, Thatcher had to bow to the inevitable. She welcomed Nelson Mandela to Downing Street a few months after his release from prison. In 2006, David Cameron met Mandela and admitted the Conservatives had been wrong.
On Monday, Jacob Zuma, the South African president and a former political prisoner, issued a statement expressing his "heartfelt condolences" on Thatcher's death. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Lady Thatcher and the people of the United Kingdom during this difficult time," he said.
But other veterans of the liberation struggle were less circumspect. Pallo Jordan, the ANC's chief propagandist in exile during the apartheid era, made no effort to hide his emotions.
"I've just sent a letter of congratulations," the former cabinet minister said. "I say good riddance. She was a staunch supporter of the apartheid regime. She was part of the rightwing alliance with Ronald Reagan that led to a lot of avoidable deaths.
"In the end I sat with her in her office with Nelson Mandela in 1991. She knew she had no choice. Although she called us a terrorist organisation, she had to shake hands with a terrorist and sit down with a terrorist. So who won?"
Mandela did not bear a grudge during the meeting, Jordan recalled. "Nelson Mandela is a forgiving person. Whatever Thatcher did, she didn't put him in jail, did she?"
South Africans living in exile in Britain experienced the Thatcher years first-hand. Among them was Dali Tambo, son of the ANC president Oliver Tambo who, despite Thatcher's cold shoulder, campaigned tirelessly for international support.
"My gut reaction now is what it was at the time when she said my father was the leader of a terrorist organisation," Tambo said. "I don't think she ever got it that every day she opposed sanctions, more people were dying, and that the best thing for the assets she wanted to protect was democracy."
Tambo, 54, who founded Artists Against Apartheid, said his father did meet foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe, who urged Thatcher to give him an audience, but she always refused. "She called us a terrorist organisation and compared us with the IRA. It's unbelievable!"
He added: "It's a shame that we could never call her one of the champions of the liberation struggle. Normally we say that when one of us goes, the ANC ancestors will meet them at the pearly gates and give them a standing ovation. I think it's quite likely that when Margaret Thatcher reaches the pearly gates, the ANC will boycott the occasion."
Mandela, now 94 and in poor health, no longer makes public statements. Sello Hatang, spokesman for the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, responded to Thatcher's death by saying the organisation would "like to pass on condolences to family and friends on the sad news of her passing".
Hatang said he had heard from sources involved in the early negotiations for the transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy that Thatcher was "supportive" of the process.
De Klerk, South Africa's last white leader, who announced Mandela's release and the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, said on Monday he had learned of Thatcher's death "with great sadness". He defended his friend's policy on South Africa, insisting she had been right not to support sanctions.
"Although she was always a steadfast critic of apartheid, she had a much better grasp of the complexities and geostrategic realities of South Africa than many of her contemporaries," he said. "She consistently, and correctly, believed that much more could be achieved through constructive engagement with the South African government than through draconian sanctions and isolation. She also understood the need to consider the concerns and aspirations of all South Africans in their search for constitutional consensus."
He added: "For this reason she was able to play a positive role in supporting our own process of non-racial constitutional transformation in South Africa. From my first meeting with her in London after my election as leader of the National party in 1989 and throughout the rest of her tenure as prime minister, she gave strong and valued to support to me and to all other leaders who were working for a peaceful, prosperous, and constitutional future for South Africa."
Thatcher joined Ronald Reagan in a policy of "constructive engagement" to seek reform from a government that they saw as a bulwark against Soviet-backed communism in Africa. Refusing to back sanctions, Thatcher infamously dismissed the African National Congress (ANC) as "a typical terrorist organisation".
Her stance became one of the political flashpoints of the 1980s and is now regarded as one of her greatest misjudgments. She was denounced by Britain's anti-apartheid movement, which took to the streets to demand South Africa's isolation. The MP Peter Hain recalled seeing Conservative students wearing "Hang Nelson Mandela" badges on campus.
But the end of the cold war made the bulwark argument obsolete and, like FW de Klerk, Thatcher had to bow to the inevitable. She welcomed Nelson Mandela to Downing Street a few months after his release from prison. In 2006, David Cameron met Mandela and admitted the Conservatives had been wrong.
On Monday, Jacob Zuma, the South African president and a former political prisoner, issued a statement expressing his "heartfelt condolences" on Thatcher's death. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Lady Thatcher and the people of the United Kingdom during this difficult time," he said.
But other veterans of the liberation struggle were less circumspect. Pallo Jordan, the ANC's chief propagandist in exile during the apartheid era, made no effort to hide his emotions.
"I've just sent a letter of congratulations," the former cabinet minister said. "I say good riddance. She was a staunch supporter of the apartheid regime. She was part of the rightwing alliance with Ronald Reagan that led to a lot of avoidable deaths.
"In the end I sat with her in her office with Nelson Mandela in 1991. She knew she had no choice. Although she called us a terrorist organisation, she had to shake hands with a terrorist and sit down with a terrorist. So who won?"
Mandela did not bear a grudge during the meeting, Jordan recalled. "Nelson Mandela is a forgiving person. Whatever Thatcher did, she didn't put him in jail, did she?"
South Africans living in exile in Britain experienced the Thatcher years first-hand. Among them was Dali Tambo, son of the ANC president Oliver Tambo who, despite Thatcher's cold shoulder, campaigned tirelessly for international support.
"My gut reaction now is what it was at the time when she said my father was the leader of a terrorist organisation," Tambo said. "I don't think she ever got it that every day she opposed sanctions, more people were dying, and that the best thing for the assets she wanted to protect was democracy."
Tambo, 54, who founded Artists Against Apartheid, said his father did meet foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe, who urged Thatcher to give him an audience, but she always refused. "She called us a terrorist organisation and compared us with the IRA. It's unbelievable!"
He added: "It's a shame that we could never call her one of the champions of the liberation struggle. Normally we say that when one of us goes, the ANC ancestors will meet them at the pearly gates and give them a standing ovation. I think it's quite likely that when Margaret Thatcher reaches the pearly gates, the ANC will boycott the occasion."
Mandela, now 94 and in poor health, no longer makes public statements. Sello Hatang, spokesman for the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, responded to Thatcher's death by saying the organisation would "like to pass on condolences to family and friends on the sad news of her passing".
Hatang said he had heard from sources involved in the early negotiations for the transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy that Thatcher was "supportive" of the process.
De Klerk, South Africa's last white leader, who announced Mandela's release and the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, said on Monday he had learned of Thatcher's death "with great sadness". He defended his friend's policy on South Africa, insisting she had been right not to support sanctions.
"Although she was always a steadfast critic of apartheid, she had a much better grasp of the complexities and geostrategic realities of South Africa than many of her contemporaries," he said. "She consistently, and correctly, believed that much more could be achieved through constructive engagement with the South African government than through draconian sanctions and isolation. She also understood the need to consider the concerns and aspirations of all South Africans in their search for constitutional consensus."
He added: "For this reason she was able to play a positive role in supporting our own process of non-racial constitutional transformation in South Africa. From my first meeting with her in London after my election as leader of the National party in 1989 and throughout the rest of her tenure as prime minister, she gave strong and valued to support to me and to all other leaders who were working for a peaceful, prosperous, and constitutional future for South Africa."
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