National Dialogue offers best chance to cross the Rubicon

TWO South African presidents, living in different times and different political dispensations, uttering the same message: South Africa's problems must be solved by South Africans.

- AAKASH BRAMDEO

THE tensions between President Cyril Ramaphosa and US President Donald Trump have escalated beyond the G20 Summit.

(AFP)

The two presidents are PW Botha, the second last apartheid president and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s fifth democratic leader.

Botha made the comment in a speech he delivered at the opening of the National Party Natal Congress in Durban on August 15, 1985.

At the time it was a speech that was keenly awaited. Speculation was rife that Botha would announce decisive action to end apartheid. He did nothing of the sort. Instead, he defended white minority rule.

He also rejected foreign involvement in what he saw as South African issues.

“South Africa's problems will be solved by South Africans and not by foreigners,” he said.

It was a defining moment for the country and in the months that followed, South Africa became increasingly isolated.

Botha’s own health subsequently deteriorated, and he was eventually forced to resign.

The man who replaced him five years later, FW de Klerk, implemented the changes Botha was expected to make and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Botha’s speech was a missed opportunity from which there was no going back. It became known as the “Rubicon” speech.

The phrase “crossing the Rubicon” originated during the times of Julius Caesar.

About 50 years before the date Christians believe Jesus Christ was born, Ceasar crossed a shallow river in northeastern Italy called the Rubicon. He did so with soldiers, something which, at the time, was prohibited. It was a point of no return.

However, for Caesar, it turned out well. The crossing kickstarted the Roman civil war which led to Caesar becoming a dictator for life.