Neil de Beer: Death of a fearless teller of truths

By Chris Steyn

It is easy to tell people to “Speak Truth to Power”…until you have done it - and paid the price.

Rarely is there a man of substance who would be willing to do so week after week - despite threats to his life.

That was Neil de Beer on the BizNews Sunday Show: Touching the untouchables. Speaking truth to those who live by the lie.

In a country with dwindling accountability and justice, he was there to remind the corrupt of their sins, the incompetent of their failures, the politicians of their betrayals.

And to do so, he turned up regularly for the Sunday Show for almost two years - even when he was feeling dreadfully ill, even when he was in excruciating pain, even with the realisation towards the end that he would not be able to finish his epic fight for justice for all.

And there were so many truths he would still have wanted to bring to light…

After all, he was deeply embedded in the tapestry of the South African political landscape: not just the politics of optics, but the underworld of politics.

That was where he saw the true colours: not of a country’s flag, but of its bearers, not of a party’s slogans, but of its secret agendas.

He moved in the ill-lit rooms behind the podium of rhetoric.

He witnessed the perjury of election promises.

He saw the ideologues at their worst.

He first served - and then fought - both the National Party Government and the African National Congress Party Government.  He worked tirelessly in the Multi-Party Charter that had to make way for the Government of National Unity.

Although he remained President of his United Independent Movement (UIM), he died not a man in a position, but a man with a position; a man who would take a stand, take it firmly, and pay the price - not grudgingly but with pride.

This morning I read again the few draft chapters of a book Neil had started writing, but never had the chance to finish.

Some of those chapter headings gave an inkling of the roads he was willing to walk for the causes he deemed just:

“Dancing in the dark

“Meeting evil in the dark

“Interrogation a dark necessity”

Neil de Beer’s death is not just the passing of a man, but the passing of a piece of the history of his country.