Let me take you into an Apartheid-era secret: we blacks found glimpses of hope under every little stone.
And one of those sparks was the larger-than-life erstwhile Minister of Foreign Affairs Pik Botha.
It was therefore not co-incidental that I received a number of calls from former colleagues — mainly black newshounds — in the mainstream media.
The callers all wanted to find out if I had heard the news of the passing of the ol’ man river of South African politics of all-time, Roelof Pik Botha.
Travelling down memory lane, during my days as a reporter for the now defunct South African Press Association (Sapa), I had the honour of several close encounters with the charismatic Botha.
At the entrance into the boardroom at the Union Buildings, ol’ Pik and a senior official from Buitelandse Sake (Foreign Affairs) stood on either side of the door. The official’s name evades my memory.
Pik and the official went about the formal “welkom … aangename kennis” (welcome and introductions), shaking hands with the journalists.
When my turn came, the official went like “ah, the Sowetan is also here!” to which Pik laughed very loud.
The Foreign Minister duly cautioned the official that not all black journalists worked for the Sowetan!
That was vintage Pik for you, who knew almost all senior black journalists by name, like the proverbial back of his hand.
This to me meant Pik — like many of us black and white journalists — had moments when he laughed off racial stereotyping.
Then there was another encounter when we invited him as guest speaker on the occasion of a summit of the Pretoria Black Media Club at Hotel Boulevard, when Pik went to the barman and declared: “J&B, met bietjie water” (J&B with a little water).
Jokingly, I confronted the towering Foreign Minister and dared: “Do not drink and drive.” Pik winked and lashed back: “Why me, everybody else is doing it, my man!”
During the burial of King Sobhuza in Swaziland in the 1980’s, newspapers published a picture of Pik sitting about six chairs away from Oliver Tambo, with the Foreign Minister naughtily looking (winking?) towards Tambo.
One newspaper — and I do not remember which — cheekily quoted Pik saying something to the effect that: “Dis hy!” (It is him!).
