‘Leon-hearted’ comeback for political legend

Veteran politician Tony Leon may have won a few elections, but wasn’t sure if he would win the Absa Professional Excellence Award. But he said he felt proud and privileged to receive this award.

He told the story of how a good friend of his nominated him unexpectedly, and he accepted it, thinking, “I’ve won a few elections, and I don’t know if I will win this or not.” Then, looking at the other candidates, he realised that it was “a far more competitive field than any I faced in politics. Then I looked at the electorate, and thought, ‘Wow, this is by far a much more critical electorate than any I had to go to before.’”

Leon said the Jewish community in South Africa, with its many community organisations and associations, could be described in a similar way to the way George HW Bush described all the civic society organisations in America: “like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky”.

He noted that about 20 years ago, his “illustrious predecessor, Helen Suzman”, whom he succeeded as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Houghton, “was honoured by the South African Jewish Museum by the late great Mendel Kaplan”.

Reflecting on his career, Leon turned to the words of the former prime minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker: “I tried, I stood, I fought.”

This year, Leon was asked by the leader of the Democratic Alliance to be one of its six negotiators for the Government of National Unity (GNU). He brought into the fold what he had learned from his discussions with FW de Klerk about negotiations for the 1994 GNU.

Leon said being part of the GNU negotiations this year was difficult because “you’ve got two opposing forces from across 30 years of division, enmity, very strong dislike in some cases, and they’re having to come together”.

Leon hopes that the architecture of the framework for the new government is better than it was in 1994, “but it obviously depends on the human factor”.

Leon’s breakthrough into politics came in 1989, when Suzman retired as MP for Houghton and he was nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for the post. “My first day in Parliament was when FW de Klerk made his February 1990 speech,” unbanning the African National Congress (ANC) and other parties.

“In 1997, Nelson Mandela invited me to an early morning breakfast at his home. He offered me a seat in his Cabinet. But I realised if I accepted the offer, it would have been the death of parliamentary opposition.

“I always believed that life – or my life anyway – is divided into a series of missions. When you complete it, you must move on to another mission. Maybe that’s why at the age of 50, I left politics.” He had accomplished what he set out to do for his party and country.

In 2009, he made a political comeback. “Jacob Zuma got hold of me and said it was important for non-ANC faces to represent the country. I was sent as ambassador to Argentina and surrounding countries. It was very absorbing and in very poor Spanish, I set about changing the terms of trade, increasing the public footprint of South Africa.”

Leon is currently working on his sixth book and lives a very engaged life, giving lectures around the world, doing work for non-governmental organisations, and mentoring young people.