Elita and her life with FW de Klerk
Martie Retief Meiring
Tafelberg
Acknowledgements
Delving into the lives of others is an awkward business. Initially, for Elita and FW de Klerk, a book like this was out of the question. But after much hesitation and pondering, they agreed to a series of interviews, in spite of their demanding schedule. They even allowed access to their diaries and photograph albums and made no demands or conditions. For all this I shall never be able to thank them adequately. As a journalist, I would also like to express my appreciation for their acceptance that since their story in part played out in the public domain, it held a strong element of newsworthiness.
Numerous conversations and interviews were also held with friends and family members. I would like to thank Nadia Lanaras, Maria Geurtsos, Jonathan Hudson, Ada Papadopoulos, George Lanaras, Niki Sergaki, Marianne Louw, Una Ramsay, Jeanette Curitz, Theresa Papenfus, the late Koos Rupert, Dave Steward, George and Tharina Joubert, Nico and Ruda Retief, Nontas Andries, Fana and Wilma Malherbe, Sakkie and Hettie de Klerk, and in particular Brenda Steyn, who went to considerable trouble to collect information for me.
My special thanks go also to Marinus Wiechers, who made available Marike de Klerk’s correspondence with him. We both believe, from our personal knowledge of Marike, that these last letters provide some insight into her humour and courage.
Finally I would like to express my thanks to my patient publisher, Erika Oosthuysen, copy editor Suzette Kotzè-Myburgh, proof reader Estelle Crowson and designer Nazli Jacobs.
Martie Retief Meiring
January 2008
Prologue
On 29 January 1998, the news flashed around the world: the former president of South Africa was going to leave his wife – for the wife of a friend. Everywhere, the report was greeted with shock and mystification. How was it possible that two people from such different worlds could meet – or have anything in common?
The lives of FW de Klerk and Elita Georgiadis could not have been more divergent. He was the former president of South Africa, she the Greek-born wife of a multi-millionaire. His world was politics, hers the international playgrounds of high society.
The nature of their relationship and its beginnings were as widely debated as its unacceptability. There was endless speculation, in society as well as in the media. And not only in South Africa. In Europe, the United States and especially in Greece, everyone who knew Elita, or knew about her, asked the same question. How could she, so well regarded in international circles and known to be a compassionate and fair-minded person, fall in love with a man who had for so many years been a proponent of the abhorred policy of apartheid?
It was inexplicable. “Who is she?” asked South Africans, who knew nothing of this woman in the life of one of their best-known political leaders. “Who is he?” asked Greek communities and British friends, who were aware that he had been president of an African state and a player in world events but knew nothing of him as a person.
Their secret relationship became public against the backdrop of a political upheaval that had gripped attention worldwide. This was a love affair between a president, a Nobel prize-winner who had won world fame through the dramatic changes that he had brought about in his country, and a woman without any involvement whatsoever in the political issues that had occupied his life. As the wife of a committed businessman, her life was one of wealth and privilege; she travelled all over the world, was one of a close family and chatelaine of a number of luxurious houses.
This was no simple or straightforward love. They were both still married to other people. For years they both tried to avoid divorce. Repeatedly they said to each other: “It cannot happen. We must set our feelings aside.” They would experience the anger of both enemies and friends when their relationship finally made headlines. In the process they would lose some of those friends; there would be accusations of betrayal, even that they had abandoned their religious principles.
He would eventually declare that he had had to make a choice against pretence, against a semblance of conventional propriety. “I fell in love with an honourable woman of foreign nationality.”
She would say: “I met a wonderful person whom I grew to love with my whole heart.”
They met for the first time at a theatre. Later, society, gossipmongers and the media would refer to their affair as a Greek drama – a drama which would play out before the avid scrutiny of both local and international media.
He was accustomed to the public gaze, she shied away from it. Immediately after the news of their affair became public, when she flew from South Africa to Greece, a reporter from the Sunday Times booked a seat on the same flight. For the first time in her life she was interviewed by a newspaper.
Her brother in law, Totis Vernicos, teased her about it: “You, Elita, interviewed by the press!” The shock of speaking to the media was as great as the photographs and reports in the Greek newspapers. “Is that woman really me?” she asked herself, appalled.
She had by then known FW for ten years. She could never have dreamed that her life would become so involved with South Africa, a country which she hardly knew and understood even less.
One: A wisdom beyond her years
In May 1989, Tony and Elita Georgiadis booked six seats for the musical Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre in London. Their guests for the evening would be Tony’s brother Alex, his wife Annie and two South Africans, FW and Marike de Klerk. After the performance they were to dine at the exclusive Marks Club so that the Georgiadises could make better acquaintance with the De Klerks.
Tony Georgiadis had substantial business interests in Africa, particularly in South Africa. He was well known in shipping circles and his business empire also extended to other continents. Although he and Elita had visited South Africa regularly since 1980 they had not yet had the opportunity – or the necessity – of meeting FW de Klerk.
Dr. Dawie de Villiers and his wife Suzaan were close friends of the De Klerks. During their time as ambassadorial couple in London they had also become friendly with the Georgiadis family, partly as a consequence of the Georgiadis brothers’ vested interests in South Africa. FW de Klerk had just been elected leader of the National Party and would therefore be the country’s next president. As ambassador and as a friend of both men, Dawie de Villiers thought it would be good if they could meet. He also thought that Tony, with his international business concerns, would be a good sounding board for FW.
This was FW’s first visit abroad as party leader. His chief objective was to meet with overseas heads of state and explain the radical changes planned in apartheid policy. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s invitation to Downing Street was, among other approaches, clear proof of the importance of the visit. FW was something of an unknown factor outside South Africa, and there was also curiosity about him in the business and political circles in which the Georgiadis brothers moved.
On the evening of their meeting, FW was engaged in interviews with various British politicians, so it was arranged that Tony and Elita would meet Marike de Klerk at the hotel and proceed to the theatre, where FW would join them later.
Elita sensed a tension in her South African guest and, in an attempt to put her at her ease, observed light-heartedly: “It’s so true that it’s the woman behind the man that counts.”
To her surprise, Marike seemed disconcerted by her remark: “But what do you know about me?” she asked suspiciously.
Elita realised that she had been misinterpreted and that she must treat the older woman with more circumspection. “It’s just what they always say,” she replied, trying to defuse the situation. After the first interval FW joined the party in the theatre and took up his seat between Elita and Marike. He immediately took Marike’s hand in his, a gesture Elita noted with approval. This is a good man, she thought.
Marike