Stories From the Book

General Mollo and I Were Floating in the Water
From Roland de Vries

The war was over and we knew we had to work together somehow. It was a negotiated peace, not a military victory where one side could impose its will on the other. There was a new nation to build, a new Army to build. I was charged with leading a team of officers to develop a vision, strategy, and implementation plan for the merger of the 7 armies into one National Defense Force.

We brought together the representatives from the seven groups that made up the new South African Army. The seven were the Defense Force of the apartheid regime, two Liberation Armies, and four armies from the homelands. They had been on opposite sides of a long and bitter struggle of which I still carry a few physical scars from a land mine that virtually destroyed a command vehicle I was in. We had been enemies and now we were suddenly being asked to work together to create a unified organization.

The initial meeting was difficult, but not as you might think. We were professional soldiers. There was no shouting or shoving. In some ways, it was just the opposite, which maybe was worse. We sounded cooperative. 'Our new situation requires a new order with a new vision.' 'In order to develop a new vision we need to become trusting, truthful, and candid.' The words were nice, but they were clearly just words.

Everyone was cautious. We were feeling each other out. I doubt if anyone said what was on his mind. There was no trust, no truth, and no candor. Why would you expect anything else? But with the history and the suspicions, I could imagine this group meeting for a year and nothing much changing. More likely, everything would get worse. When the meetings did not resolve much, or much fast enough, people would start to blame others. That's only human. They would huddle more and more with their groups. All the terrible hate and pain could surface, and then what happens?

At our second meeting I made a very personal decision. I felt I had to do what I thought was right in this situation. I could not see how we could create one organization unless we could somehow learn to be trustful and candid with each other. Of course it would be difficult. But what was the alternative? So I told them some truth about my situation: 'key people on our side want the new army to be just like our old National Defense Force. They do not want to merge all the elements. They expect me to make everyone else to be like them.' I ended my comments by saying 'I have no intention of doing that. It does not make sense to me. It is wrong. And I will not do it'.

You could say that this was insane. Many things could have happened-- less in the meeting than over the following week-- that would not have been helpful to the group or to me personally. But was that not the right thing to do? If you spend all your life calculating what is safest, is it a good life?

There were a number of different directions the conversation could have turned immediately after my comments. What actually happened was this. Others began to tell similar stories! It did not happen fast. But one person also took a risk, then another. Someone admitted, 'I too have people who want no real merging'. Another said, 'I have people who want everything to be on their terms. They want the new vision to be their old vision'. And so on. Not everyone, but still amazing.

With that meeting, we made our first step in the right direction. It was not a big step. But it was the beginning.

One of the things we then did to get to know each other on a personal basis was to have regular camping trips, which everyone on the team came to enjoy. At night we would sit around an open fire telling 'war stories'. Some of my new colleagues were able to do this more comfortably than others, as you would expect. But we did it. After a few of these, we actually discussed the various battle strategies when we were fighting each other. We would also break into smaller groups and just go off and talk to get to know each other on a deeper level.

The 'moment of truth' incident for us happened when a boat capsized in the sea throwing me and Solly Mollo overboard. Solly was a senior commander with the 'Spear of the Nation' Liberation Army. The two of us were floating in our life jackets for a while when he looked at me and said, 'I can't swim'. I looked at him and said, 'you should not worry because I am a strong swimmer, and I can and will take care of you until we reach the shore'. Can you imagine how this must have looked, the two of us hanging onto each other in the open sea?

We floated for over an hour before we were rescued. In order to pass the time, we shared personal stories with each other. I don't remember how we got started. But our comments were very personal. We talked about our families and the sacrifices they had to make as a result of our being soldiers. We talked about our feelings on the racial problems that had been pulling our country apart. We talked about issues we faced in bringing two very different cultures together.

The candid conversations, talk around the campfires, floating in the water-- we did many things by design and chance to pull us together. And it is rather amazing, in my opinion, what can happen to a group of enemies.