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Nelson Botile was similarly becoming a true friend. We began to trust each other. Our conversations gained from this mutual trust. ‘An increasing number of whites,’ he said, ‘become aware that the time for definite changes has finally arrived. This cannot be done haphazardly. Management is needed, step by step.’ I suggested that it seemed a foregone conclusion that in the end blacks would simply, by sheer numbers, overrun whites in South Africa. ‘No,’ said the former mayor of Soweto, ‘if we start now to bring blacks and whites together in genuine teamwork, by the time the black population will have reached 40 million the inhabitants of this subcontinent will have learned to operate as a team for a common goal.’ I said that I was reminded of recent events in Zimbabwe and had my doubts. ‘When you have to fight a vicious war, as the Zimbabwians have done, the struggle for liberation sticks in your mind. You retain a bad memory. If we can avoid this in South Africa and if we can achieve liberation through negotiation, there will be an altogether different future for whites in South Africa.’ I asked Nelson if he felt that sufficient numbers of blacks would be prepared to recognize a continued need for close co-operation with whites after D-Day had arrived. ‘Oh, yes,’ he replied quite spontaneously, ‘blacks need whites and whites need blacks. Both population groups need each other. Look at the homelands. Whites are present in homelands today. They assist blacks with their advanced knowledge and expertise. Whites will be needed everywhere in South Africa, even if blacks were to start to rule tomorrow. Therefore, if blacks and whites would only begin now, in 1989, to truly run the country together, there would evolve an entirely different situation from what happened in Zimbabwe. There, many blacks still live with memories of the horrors of war. In South Africa, we must sit down
and negotiate instead.
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