SYND 3 6 77 RHODESIAN FOREIGN MINISTER VAN DER BYL INTERVIEW

[@johnnymookergee4935]

God Bless you PK , First Class

[@davidcrisell5744]

That accent, more British than my neighbours.

[@KernowekTim]

More English than Scottish, Welsh, or Cornish, ye belugen.

[@moirapettifr7127]

He sounded so Monty Python.

[@ryan17920]

Apparently he was Hated by the Boers in Rhodesia for his Britishness

[@tomwinterfishing9065]

Splendid, isn’t it😄

[@MillerVanDotTV]

Proper British accent and proper British teeth. Yet a Afrikaner. I kind of like the guy.

[@michaeljose8122]

MillerVanDotTV Ah the irony.. :). Did he ever speak Afrikaans in public...?

[@NikoChristianWallenberg]

He wasn't seen as Afrikaner by Afrikaners: he was of Afrikaner descent, but he had fully adopted British mannerism and he was disliked by the South African leadership.

[@rorygilmoreNZ]

@@michaeljose8122 When giving presentations to get support for Rhodesia in SA he was often vilified and booed by Afrikaner farmers there fir his perfect queens English. He could actually speak Afrikaans but didn’t, considering it child like and simplistic. So his typical response was to address the crowd in high Dutch (the mother tongue of Afrikaans). That pretty much shut them up as he spoke their mother tongue better than they did. :) a real character.

[@kengingrich8102]

RIP a true Gentleman and one of the top figures of western world.

[@hardcoregamer1282]

why he don't go back in his own continent

[@lawrence5379]

@@hardcoregamer1282 where? africa? he was born there.

[@mashmallow5578]

Rascists. When the oppressed rebel they are called terrorists. Evil people

[@TraditionalbritainOrg]

What a good chap

[@yoooooooooooooooooou]

a total loser

[@SymphonyBrahms]

What a segregationist.

[@Wilhelm5381]

priceless

[@MargotDarby]

Grand guy.

[@J1345-i4v]

Brave man risked his well being for a great country. P.K. was a multi million who didnt need to risk his wealth to get into politics as heavy as Rhodesia back in the day. But he cared deeply for the cause and had the background, resume and charm. A great statesman, too bad they dont make them like this anymore.

[@tomwinterfishing9065]

Old school sense of duty. One of the last of a good kind.

[@SenyorCapitàCollons]

A proud white zimbabwean who was key in the transition to majority rule while keeping proudly white, with excelent manners which kept in politics till 1987. A gentleman and a fine person with a strong way of being.

[@yani2499]

He sounds like he's made tea and crumpets.

[@KernowekTim]

Belugen ye

[@Starsky1413]

Unbelievable how the liberal press carries on and on. Just unspeakable fools

[@SymphonyBrahms]

Unbelievable how the right wing press ignores racial injustice.

[@Starsky1413]

@@SymphonyBrahms do you live in Africa? If you don’t then don’t comment here

[@iansoutryer3189]

I remember I tried to shape my own accent on his, but I daresay I failed.

[@MasimbaMusodza]

The Picadilly Dutchman

[@onefromfuture6913]

Damn did Rhodesia have no dentists?

[@jamesbedukodjograham5508]

I see that you realised the nation had no Dentists out there.

[@SymphonyBrahms]

It would seem so.

[@apoiujdba0-9u]

or energy

[@jeffm.3575]

Heavy smoker's teeth

[@paulhowden720]

RLI 💪💪💪

[@KernowekTim]

A good, straight-talking minister, so lacking in todays spine-less breed of politician. Forget whether he had ''Piet' Boer blood or any such BS, or a correctly spoken English voice, because such talk is child-like. This man harboured no duplicity in his make-up, no breed bigotry, and no rascism either. Remember that Stalin was a Georgian, and Hitler was an Austrian, yet the former was 'Russian', the latter 'German'.

[@SymphonyBrahms]

But he was a Boer.

[@allanisted2733]

Apparently a colourful character

[@ianhall3822]

That attack was a disaster for Rhodesia. Vorster, fearing an escalation of violence, pulled all SA troops out of Rhodesia, banned the export of petrol to Rhodesia, and that was the beginning of the end for Smith.

[@RK-zo9vs]

I have to say it was also the beginning of the end for South Africa. Vorster should have doubled down and made South West Africa a Province of South Africa too, with a mutual defence pact between South Africa and Rhodesia to defend the 3 territories. If necessary they could have then proceeded to take Mozambique and Angola over and made them provinces of Rhodesia and South Africa.

[@SymphonyBrahms]

Good.

[@greenpedal370]

@ian hall What rubbish

[@greenpedal370]

@@RK-zo9vs If ifs and buts were pots and pans there would be no need for tinkers.

[@thesmithersy]

Vorster stabbed Smith in the back just to extend SA apartheid for an extra 10 years.

[@michaeltaylor8835]

Took himself off to Lichstenstein says a lot

[@kmfw72]

Married a princess from there who was young enough to be his daughter, then moved back to South Africa where he died.

[@A1Kira]

He blinks so much... and his eyes looked so tired.

[@ReeseChown]

Described by Conservative MP Douglas Hurd as, "the most offensive and ignorant person in authority whom I have ever met. A false Englishman in the manner of Ribbentrop. Against elections, against everything except intrigue and condescension".

[@SymphonyBrahms]

So a Boer was their foreign minister. Hmm.

[@jnestor481]

A god damn shame Rhodesia fell. A bright light on a dark continent

[@TucsonDude]

Didn't fit into the "plan" for the world.

[@andrewlambert7246]

Rhodesia was a real super, super, banana republic. Please note that I say super, super banana republic.

[@SymphonyBrahms]

Most banana republics are run by dictators.

[@Wilhelm5381]

what do you mean? Zim is a banana republic

[@AxmedGurey_Al-Ghazi]

Hope he likes it hot #ripbozo

[@keztrel]

lol nah

[@PeoplesProtector]

Jesus Christ, his breath must have smelled. Still a cool little addition to my vast roster of accents to impersonate.

[@firstclassatlanticflyer]

Lol what makes you say that though?

[@PeoplesProtector]

@@firstclassatlanticflyer . Those damn teeth.

[@firstclassatlanticflyer]

@@PeoplesProtector Lmao I see.

[@PeoplesProtector]

@@firstclassatlanticflyer . The man smoked. A...LOT!

[@johnnymookergee4935]

Like the Pope’s breath doesn’t smell like a Broken brewery

[@tomchappelow9602]

The fate of that great nation was among the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century. Remember Rhodesia.

[@ComedyJakob]

offensive to British people

[@jorgealvidrez9641]

He looks more European than African to me.

[@keztrel]

he was born in Africa?

[@islamicschoolofmemestudies]

Grotesque parody of a British posh class.

[@michaeltaylor8835]

A Brit not a Rhodesian

[@kevinmcmahon2491]

No. He was born a South African.

[@romanfilimonoff3036]

He was a Rhodesian of Dutch and Scottish descent.

[@kevinmcmahon2491]

Born in South Africa.

[@brianmuvuti2505]

A vile Afrikanner .

[@SC1089]

He sounds ridiculous. It's the way he "thought" a British gentleman sounds.

[@donaldtelfer8468]

Unusually for a foreign minister, he represented the government of a country that was not recognised by most of the rest of the world, so I suspect he had very little to do as a foreign minister, apart from talk to the media. He evidently made or wanted to make a fortune in tobacco, at the expense of millions of deaths from cancer and emphysema. I think he would make a good Dracula character, a South African born Rhodesian pretending to be an English gentleman with a dark secret, afraid of sunlight. I wonder to what extent he had a hand in the extra helicopters Rhodesia snuck in circumventing sanctions during 1978 ?

[@SymphonyBrahms]

A Dracula character. That sums it up very well.

[@southernafricanboy4148]

Lol so true. His is sick joke. An Afrikaner pretending to be an English man🤣😁

[@jupitermars1974]

Kak teeth, skew tie, bad argument, lost cause

[@Wilhelm5381]

well what would you have done?

[@jupitermars1974]

@@Wilhelm5381 I have no idea. With hindsight the Rhodesian government should probably have negotiated from a position of strength in about '74. No matter what the body count was, how effective and impressive the Rhodesian forces were, the whole Cold War background, etc, 8% of the population could not hold out in the face of the hostility of the entire world. That Rhodesia was well run, efficient, etc, is beyond doubt. It was also brutal very often and lost the PR war before it even started. This was a lost cause. Van der Byl knew this. Lost causes are romantic, alluring, etc, but not worth dying for when simple mathematics means you have already lost

[@brianandtarryn]

@@jupitermars1974 Rhodesia stood no chance against China, Russia, Britain, and The USA all hell bent on her demise. Rhodesia will always be remembered as the gem of Africa that looked forward to a great and prosperous future for all of her people. Sad, that never happened and now the country is in ruins and depends on foreign aid to feed it's people.

[@jupitermars1974]

@@brianandtarryn China, the UK, the USSR and the US were irrelevant. It was Vorster and the former SA order that could have kept Smith in power indefinitely but didn't. Vorster wanted some kind of impossible detente with African states, Smith was out of touch with reality in otherways. Smith got scarificed, SA got nothing in return and a lot of people died. Botha would have handled it differently. Smith would have been sacrificed later and a lot more people would have died

[@brianandtarryn]

@@jupitermars1974 Yes indeed, detente. The game where Nyerere and Kaunda played Vorster like a fiddle and Kissinger was entertained.. used by the terrorists, the UK were on the back foot and had sore feelings when Rhodesia demanded Britain honour her word in granting Rhodesia independence, Harold Wilson lied and Ian Smith called his bluff in declaring independence. The result was that Harold Wilson ran off to the UN with his tail between his legs crying unfair, unfair. The Americans then fell in with the UN. Britain stabbed Rhodesia in the back. The USA stabbed Rhodesia in the back. The USA then put pressure on SA and guess what, South Africa also stabbed Rhodesia in the back. The end, Rhodesia didn't stand a chance, and now what's left? Not much but a bankrupt, run down, broken, impoverished shadow of what was the gem of Africa.