by Wilbur Smith
In the heady euphoria, very few, even amongst the English-speaking opposition, realized just how many doors Verwoerd had locked and barred behind him and just how cold and bleak the winds that Macmillan had predicted would blow across the southern tip of Africa in the coming years.
With the Republic safely launched Verwoerd could at last select his praetorian guard to protect it and hold it strong. Erasmus, the erstwhile minister of justice who had acted neither as ruthlessly nor as resolutely as was expected during the emergency, was packed off as the ambassador of the new Republic to Rome, and Verwoerd presented two new ministers to his cabinet.
The new minister of defence was the member for the constituency of George in the Cape, P. W. Botha, while Erasmus's replacement as minister of justice was Balthazar Johannes Vorster. Shasa Courtney knew Vorster well, and as he listened to him make his first address to the cabinet, he reflected how much like Manfred De La Rey the man was.
They were almost the same age and, like Manfred, Vorster had been a member of the extreme right-wing anti-Smuts pro-Nazi Ossewa Brandwag during the war. Whereas it was generally accepted that Manfred had remained in Germany during the war years although he was very mysterious and secretive about that period of his life - John Vorster had been interned in Smuts' Koffiefontein concentration camp for the duration.
Both Vorster and De La Rey had been educated at Stellenbosch University, the citadel of Afrikanerdom, and their political careers had run closely parallel courses. Although Manfred had won his seat in parliament in the historic 1948 elections, John Vorster in the same elections had gained the distinction of being the only candidate in South African history to lose by a mere two votes. Later, in 1953, he vindicated himself by winning the same Brakpan seat with a majority of seven hundred.
Now that the two of them were seated at the long table in the cabinet room, their physical resemblance was striking. They were both heavy/.rugged-looking men, with bulldog features, both obduratg,41nflinching and tough, the epitome of the hard Boer.
Vorster confirmed this for Shasa as he began to speak, leaning forward aggressively, confident and articulate. 'I believe we are in a fight to the death with the forces of communism, and that we cannot defeat suI ersion or thwart revolution by closely observing the Queensberly rules. We have to put aside the old precepts of habeas corpus, and arm ourselves with new legislation that will enable us to preempt the enemy, to pick out their leaders and put them away where they can do little harm. This is not a new concept, gentlemen." Vorster smiled down the table and Shasa was struck by the way in which his dour features lit up with that impish smile.
'You all know where I spent the war years, without the benefit of trial. Let me tell you right now - it worked. It kept me out of mischief and that's what I intend to do with those who would destroy this land - keep them out of mischief. I want power to detain any person whom I know to be an enemy of the state, without trial, for a period of up to ninety days." It was a masterly performance and Shasa felt some trepidation in having to follow it, especially when he could not be so sanguine in his own view of the future.
'At the moment I have two major concerns,' he told his colleagues seriouslyú 'The first is the arms embargo placed upon us by the Arnel cans. I believe that other countries are soon going to bow to Arnel can pressure and extend the embargo. One day we might even ha the ridiculous situation where Great Britain will refuse to sell us t arms we need for our own defenceú' Some of the others at the tab fidgeted and looked incredulousú Shasa assured them: 'We conn( afford to underestimate this hysteria of America for what they ca civil rights. Remember that they sent troops to help force blacks mt white schools." The memory of that appalled them all and there wet no further signs of disbelief as Shasa went on. 'A nation who can d that will do anythingú My aim is to make this country totally sell sufficient in conventional armaments within five years?"ú
'Is that possible. Verwoerd asked sharply.
'I believe so." Shasa noddedú 'Fortunately, this eventuality has bee anticipatedú You yourself warned me of the possibility of an arm embargo when you appointed me, Prime Ministerú' Verwoerd nodded and Shasa repeated, 'This is my aim; self sufficient in conventional weapons in five years --' Shasa pause( dramaticallyú 'And nuclear capableú in ten yearsú' This was stretching their credulity and there were interjections ant sharp questions, so that Shasa held up his hands and spoke firmly.
'I am deadly serious, gentlemen. We can do it! Given certain circum.
stances." 'Money,' said Hendrik Verwoerd, and Shasa noddedú 'Yes, Prime Minister, money. Which brings me to my second majoi considerationú' Shasa drew a deep breath, and steeled himself to broach an unpalatable truth. 'Since the Sharpeville shootings, we have had a crippling flight of capital from the country. Cecil Rhodes was wont to say that the Jews were his birds of good omen. When the Jews came, an enterprise or a country was assured of success, and when the Jews left you could expect the worstú Well the sad truth, gentlemen, is that our Jews are leaving. We have to entice them to stay and bring back those who have already left." Again there was restlessness around the table. The National Party had been conceived on that wave of anti-semitism between the world wars, and although it had abated since then, traces of it still existed.
'These are the facts, gentlemen." Shasa ignored their discomfortú 'Since Sharpeville, the value of property has collapsed to half what it was before the shooting, and the stock market is at its lowest since the dark days of Dunkirk. The businessmen and investors of the world are convinced that this government is tottering and on the point of capitulating to the forces of communism and darknessú They see us as being engulfed in despondency and anarchy, with black mobs burning and looting and white civilization about to go up in flames." They laughed derisively and John Vorster made a bitter interjection.
'I have just explained what steps we will take." 'Yes." Shasa cut him off quickly. 'We know that the foreign view is distorted. We know that we still have a strong and stable government, that the country is prosperous and productive and that the vast majority of our people, both black and white, are lawabiding and content. We know that we have our guardian angel, gold, to protect us. But we have to convince the rest of the world." 'Do you think that's possible, man."?" Manfred asked quickly.
'Yes, with a full-scale and concerted campaign to give the truth of the situation to the businessmen of the world,' Shasa said. 'I have recruited most of our own leaders in industry and commerce to assist.
We will go out at our own expense to explain the truth. We will invite them here -journalists, businessmen and friends - to see for themselves how tranquil and how under control the country truly is, and just how rich are the opportunities.
Sfiasa spoke for another thirty minutes and when he ended, his own fervour and sincerity had exhausted him; but then he saw how he had finally convinced his colleagues and he knew the results were worth the effort. He was convinced that-from the horror of Sharpeville he could mount a fresh endeavour that would carry them to greater heights of prosperity and strength.
Shasa had always been resilient, with extraordinary recuperative powers. ,:en in his airforce days, when he brought the squadron in from a sortie over the Italian lines and the others had sat around the mess, stunned and shattered by the experience, he had been the first to recover and to start the repartee and boisterous horse-play. Shasa left the cabinet room drained and exhausted but by the time he had driven the vintage SS Jaguar around the mountain and through the Anreith gate of Weltevreden, he was sitting up straight in the bucket seat, feeling confident and jaunty again.
The harvest was long past and the labourers were in the vineyards pruning the vines. Shasa parked the Jaguar and went down between the rows of bare leafless plants to talk to them and give them encouragement. Many of these men and women had been on Weltevreden since Shasa had been a child, and the younger ones had been born here. Shasa looked upon them as an extension of his family and they in turn regarded him as their patriarch. He spent
half an hour with them listening to their small problems and worries, and settling most with a few words of assurance, then he broke off and left them abruptly as a figure on horseback came down the far side of the vineyard at full gallop.
From the corner of the stone wall Shasa watched Isabella gather her mount, and he stiflened as he realized what she was going to do.
The mare was not yet fully schooled and Shasa had never trusted her temperament. The wall was of yellow Table Mountain sandstone, five foot high.
'No, Bella!" he whispered. 'No, baby!" But she turned the mare and drove her at the wall, and the horse reacted gamely. Her quarters bunched and the great muscles rippled below the glossy hide. Isabella lifted her and they went up.
Shasa held his breath, but even in his suspense he could appreciate what a magnificent sight they made, horse and rider, thoroughbreds both - the mare with her forelegs folded up under her chest and her ears pricked forward, soaring away from the earth, and Isabella leaning back in the saddle, her back arched and her young body supple and lovely, long legs and fine thrusting breasts, red mouth laughing and her hair flying free, sparkling with ruby lights in the late yellow sunlight.
Then they were over and Shasa exhaled sharply. Isabella swung the mare down to where he stood at the corner.
'You promised to ride with me, Pater,' she scolded him. Shasa's instinct was to reprimand her for that jump, but he prevented himself.
He knew she would probably respond by pulling the mare's head around and taking the jump again from this side. He wondered just when he had lost control of her, and then grinned ruefully as he answered himself.
'About ten minutes after she was born." The mare was dancing in a circle and Isabella flung her hair back with a toss of her head.
'I waited almost an hour for you,' she said.
'Affairs of state --' Shasa began.
'That's no excuse, Pater. A promise is a promise." 'It's still not too late,' he pointed out, and she laughed as she challenged him.
'I'll race that old banger of yours down to the stables!" And she booted the mare into a gallop.
'Not fair,' he called after her. 'You have too much start,' but she turned in the saddle and stuck her tongue out at him. He ran to the Jag, but she cut across north field and was dismounted by the time he drove into the stableyard.
She tossed her reins to a groom and ran to embrace him. Isabella had a variety of kisses, but this type, lingering and loving, with a little bit of ear-nuzzling at the end, was reserved for when she badly wanted something from him, something that she knew he was going to try to refuse.
While he pulled on his riding boots she sat close beside him on the bench and told him a funny story about her sociology professor at varsity.
'This huge shaggy St Bernard wandered into the lecture theatre and Prof. Jacobs was quick as a flash. Better that the dogs should come to learning, he said, than learning should go to the dogs." She was a natural mimic. As they left the saddle room, she hugged his arm.
'Oh, Daddy, if only I could find a boy like you, but they're all so utterly dreary." 'Long may they remain that way,' he wished fervently.
He made a cup with his hands for her to mount, but she laughed at him and sprang to the saddle easily on those long lovely legs.
'Come on, slowcoach. It'll be dark soon." Shasa enjoyed being alone with her. She enchanted him with her mercurial changes of mood and subject. She had a quick mind and quirky sense of humour, to go with her extraordinary face and body, but Ste alarmed him when she showed flashes of that restless refusal to coneentrate for long on a single topic. Sean had been like that, needing constant stimulation to hold his interest, easily bored by anything that could not keep the same breathless pace that he set.
Shasa was amazed that Isabella had lasted out a year of university studies, but he was resigned to the fact that she wasn't going to graduate. Every time they discussed it, she was more disparaging of the academic life. Make-believe, she called it. Kids' stuff. And when he reed, 'Well, Bella, you are still a kid', she bridled at him. 'Oh, Daddy, you don't understand!" 'Don't I? Don't you think I was your age once?" 'I suppose so - but that was in biblical times, for God's sake." 'Ladies don't swear,' he remonstrated automatically.
She attracted admirers in slavish droves, and treated them with callous indifference for a while and then dropped them with almost feline cruelty, and all the time the restlessness in her was more apparent.
'I should have been stricter with her right from the beginning,' he decided grimly, and then grinned. 'What the hell, she's my only indulgence - and she'll be gone soon enough." 'Do you know that when you smile like that you are the sexiest man in the world?" she interrupted his thoughts.
'What do you know about sexiness, young lady?" he demanded gruffly to cover his gratification, and she tossed her head at him.
'Wouldn't you like to know?" 'No thank you,' he refused hastily. 'I'd probably have a hernia on the Spot." 'My poor old Daddy." She edged the mare over until their knees touched and she leaned across to hug him.
'All right, Bella,' he smiled. 'You'd better tell me what you want.
Your heavy artillery has demolished my defences entirely." 'Oh, Daddy, you make me seem so scheming. I'll race you down to the polo grounds." He let her lead, holding his stallion's nose just behind her stirrup all the way down the hill. Nonetheless, she was flushed with triumph as she pulled in the mare and turned back to him. 'I had a letter from Mater,' she said.
For a moment Shasa didn't realize what she had said, then his smile iced over and he glanced at his gold Rolex wristwatch.
'We'd better be getting back." 'I want to talk about my mother. We haven't talked about her since the divorce." 'There isn't anything to discuss. She's out of our lives." 'No." Isabella shook her head. 'She wants to see me - me and Mickey.
She wants us to go to London and visit her." 'No,' he said fiercely.
'She's my mother." 'She signed away all claim to that title." 'I want to see her - she wants to see me." 'We'll talk about it some other time." 'I want to talk about it now. Why won't you let me go?" 'Your mother did things which put her beyond the pale. She would exert an influence of evil upon you." 'Nobody influences me - unless I want them to,' she said. 'And what did mother do anyway? Nobody has ever explained that." 'She committed an act of calculated treachery. She betrayed us all - her husband, her father, her family, her children and her country." 'I don't believe it." Isabella shook her head. 'Mater was always so concerned for everybody." 'I cannot, and will not, give you all the details, Bella. Just believe me when I tell you that if I had not spirited her out of the country, she would have stood trial as an accessory to the murder of her own father and for the crime of high treason." They rode up to the stables in silence, but as they entered the yard and dismounted, IsabelIa said quietly, 'She should have the chance to explain it to me herself." 'I can forbid you to go, Bella, you are still a minor. But you know I won't do that. I'll simply ask you not to go to London to see that woman." 'I'm sorry, Daddy. Mickey is going, and I am going with him." She saw his expression, and went to him quickly. 'Please try to understand. I love you, but I love her too. I have to go." They drove up to the house in the Jaguar without speaking again, but as he parked the car and switched off the ignition, Shasa asked, 'When?" 'We haven't decided yet." 'I tell you what. We'll go together some time and perhaps we could go on to Switzerland for a week's skiing or Italy to do some sight-seeing. We might even stop in Paris to get you a new frock.
Lord knows, you are short of clothes." 'My dear father, you are a crafty old dog, aren't you?" They were still laughing as they went arm in arm up the front steps of Weltevreden. Centaine came out of her study door across the lobby. When she saw them she snatched the gold-rimmed reading glasses off her nose - she hated even the family to see her wearing them - and she demanded, 'What are you two so merry about? Bella is wearig her triumphant expression. What has she talked you into this time Centainedidn't wait for an answer, but pointed to the huge b
anana-shaped package almost ten foot long, wrapped in thick layers of brown hessian, that lay in the middle of the chequered marble floor.
'Shasa, this arrived for you this morning and it has been cluttering up the house all day. Please get rid of it, whatever it is." Centaine had lived on alone at Rhodes Hill for almost a year after Blair's death before Shasa had been able to persuade her to close the L ,use up and return to Weltevreden. Now she ran a strict routine to which they were all expected to conform.
'Now what on earth is this?" Shasa tentatively attempted to lift one end of the long package, and then grunted. 'It's made of lead, whatever it is." 'Hold on, Pater,' Garry called from the top of the staircase. 'You'll bust something." He came bounding down the stairs, three at a time.
'I'll do that for you - where do you want it?" 'The gun room will do. Thanks, Garry." Garry enjoyed showing off his strength and he lifted the heavy package easily, and manoeuvred it down the passageway, then through the gun-room door and laid it on the lion skin in front of the fireplace.
'Do you want me to open it?" he asked, and without waiting for an answer went to work on it.
Isabella perched on the desk, determined not to miss anything, and none of them spoke until Garry had stripped away the last sheet of hessian and stood back.
'It's magnificent,' Shasa breathed. 'I have never seen anythi quite like that in my life before." It was a single tusk of curved ivor almost ten foot long, as thick as a pretty girl's waist at one end or tapering to a blunt point at the other.
