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Louis Pienaar
Louis Alexander Pienaar (23 June 1926 – 5 November 2012) was a South African lawyer and diplomat. He was the last white Administrator of South-West Africa, from 1985 through Namibian independence in 1990. Pienaar later served as a minister in F W de Klerk's government until 1993. He married Isabel Maud van Niekerk on 11 December 1954.
In the early 1980s, Louis Pienaar was assigned to Paris as South Africa's ambassador to France.
On 1 July 1985, Pienaar was appointed by the National Party government to be the Administrator-General (AG) of South-West Africa, a territory that the United Nations Security Council called Namibia and which UNSC Resolution 435 of 1978 declared was being administered illegally by South Africa. Two years after AG Pienaar's appointment, when prospects for Namibian independence seemed to be improving, UN Commissioner for Namibia (UNCN), Bernt Carlsson, was appointed. Upon South Africa's relinquishing control of Namibia, Commissioner Carlsson's role would have been to take over the administration of the country on behalf of the UN, formulate its framework constitution, and organise free and fair elections based upon a non-racial universal franchise.
In May 1988, a United States mediation team – headed by Chester A. Crocker, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs – brought negotiators from Angola, Cuba, and South Africa, and observers from the Soviet Union together in London. Later in May, at the Reagan/Gorbachev summit in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988), it was decided that Cuban troops would be withdrawn from Angola, and Soviet military aid would cease, as soon as South Africa withdrew from Namibia. The New York Accords – agreements to give effect to these decisions – were drawn up for signature at UN headquarters in New York City in December 1988. Cuba, South Africa, and the People's Republic of Angola agreed to a total Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola. This agreement – known as the Brazzaville Protocol – established a Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC) with the US and the Soviet Union, as observers, to oversee implementation of the accords. A bilateral agreement between Cuba and Angola was signed at UN headquarters on 22 December 1988. On the same day, a tripartite agreement between Angola, Cuba and South Africa was signed, whereby South Africa agreed to hand control of Namibia to the United Nations.
(Tragically, UNCN Bernt Carlsson was not present at the signing ceremony. He was killed on flight Pan Am 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988 en route from London to New York. South African foreign minister, Pik Botha, and an official delegation of 22 had a lucky escape. Their booking on Pan Am 103 was changed last minute, and Botha, together with the smaller delegation, caught the earlier Pan Am 101 flight to New York.)
UN Security Council adopted resolution 632 on 16 February 1989, requiring that implementation of UNSCR 435 should officially start on 1 April 1989. AG Pienaar, under the supervision of UN Special Representative, Martti Ahtisaari, who arrived in Windhoek in April 1989, to head the United Nations Transition Assistance Group, began Namibia's transition to independence. The transition got off to a shaky start, because contrary to SWAPO leader Sam Nujoma's written assurances to the UN Secretary-General to abide by an agreed cease-fire and repatriate from Angola only unarmed Namibians, the South Africans alleged that approximately 2,000 armed members of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), SWAPO's military wing, crossed the border from Angola in an apparent attempt to establish a military presence in northern Namibia. Under pressure from AG Pienaar and South Africa's foreign minister Pik Botha, UNTAG's Martti Ahtisaari took advice from the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was visiting Southern Africa at the time, and authorised a limited contingent of South African troops to aid the South West African Police (SWAPOL) in restoring order. A period of intense fighting followed, during which 237 PLAN fighters and 27 South Africans were reported to have been killed.
On 7 April, AG Pienaar announced that he was unilaterally suspending the independence process, but his decision was quickly repudiated by Pik Botha.
On 11 April, he stated, that contrary to previous undertakings, UNTAG and the South African security forces had "agreed that PLAN soldiers would be interrogated in order to verify the suspected number of infiltrators". Botha overruled AG Pienaar's statement saying "there is no question of interrogation".
Louis Pienaar
Louis Alexander Pienaar (23 June 1926 – 5 November 2012) was a South African lawyer and diplomat. He was the last white Administrator of South-West Africa, from 1985 through Namibian independence in 1990. Pienaar later served as a minister in F W de Klerk's government until 1993. He married Isabel Maud van Niekerk on 11 December 1954.
In the early 1980s, Louis Pienaar was assigned to Paris as South Africa's ambassador to France.
On 1 July 1985, Pienaar was appointed by the National Party government to be the Administrator-General (AG) of South-West Africa, a territory that the United Nations Security Council called Namibia and which UNSC Resolution 435 of 1978 declared was being administered illegally by South Africa. Two years after AG Pienaar's appointment, when prospects for Namibian independence seemed to be improving, UN Commissioner for Namibia (UNCN), Bernt Carlsson, was appointed. Upon South Africa's relinquishing control of Namibia, Commissioner Carlsson's role would have been to take over the administration of the country on behalf of the UN, formulate its framework constitution, and organise free and fair elections based upon a non-racial universal franchise.
In May 1988, a United States mediation team – headed by Chester A. Crocker, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs – brought negotiators from Angola, Cuba, and South Africa, and observers from the Soviet Union together in London. Later in May, at the Reagan/Gorbachev summit in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988), it was decided that Cuban troops would be withdrawn from Angola, and Soviet military aid would cease, as soon as South Africa withdrew from Namibia. The New York Accords – agreements to give effect to these decisions – were drawn up for signature at UN headquarters in New York City in December 1988. Cuba, South Africa, and the People's Republic of Angola agreed to a total Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola. This agreement – known as the Brazzaville Protocol – established a Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC) with the US and the Soviet Union, as observers, to oversee implementation of the accords. A bilateral agreement between Cuba and Angola was signed at UN headquarters on 22 December 1988. On the same day, a tripartite agreement between Angola, Cuba and South Africa was signed, whereby South Africa agreed to hand control of Namibia to the United Nations.
(Tragically, UNCN Bernt Carlsson was not present at the signing ceremony. He was killed on flight Pan Am 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988 en route from London to New York. South African foreign minister, Pik Botha, and an official delegation of 22 had a lucky escape. Their booking on Pan Am 103 was changed last minute, and Botha, together with the smaller delegation, caught the earlier Pan Am 101 flight to New York.)
UN Security Council adopted resolution 632 on 16 February 1989, requiring that implementation of UNSCR 435 should officially start on 1 April 1989. AG Pienaar, under the supervision of UN Special Representative, Martti Ahtisaari, who arrived in Windhoek in April 1989, to head the United Nations Transition Assistance Group, began Namibia's transition to independence. The transition got off to a shaky start, because contrary to SWAPO leader Sam Nujoma's written assurances to the UN Secretary-General to abide by an agreed cease-fire and repatriate from Angola only unarmed Namibians, the South Africans alleged that approximately 2,000 armed members of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), SWAPO's military wing, crossed the border from Angola in an apparent attempt to establish a military presence in northern Namibia. Under pressure from AG Pienaar and South Africa's foreign minister Pik Botha, UNTAG's Martti Ahtisaari took advice from the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was visiting Southern Africa at the time, and authorised a limited contingent of South African troops to aid the South West African Police (SWAPOL) in restoring order. A period of intense fighting followed, during which 237 PLAN fighters and 27 South Africans were reported to have been killed.
On 7 April, AG Pienaar announced that he was unilaterally suspending the independence process, but his decision was quickly repudiated by Pik Botha.
On 11 April, he stated, that contrary to previous undertakings, UNTAG and the South African security forces had "agreed that PLAN soldiers would be interrogated in order to verify the suspected number of infiltrators". Botha overruled AG Pienaar's statement saying "there is no question of interrogation".