3 days ago
Nicholas Haysom's inspiring journey: From apartheid activist to UN peace advocate
Working alongside Nelson Mandela, Nicholas Haysom played a pivotal role in shaping South Africa's democratic future.
Image: United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) / Facebook
Nicholas 'Fink' Haysom, a young white activist, risked detention in South Africa to oppose the apartheid regime.
He later worked alongside Nelson Mandela and continues to pursue peace and human rights today as special representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan and head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Haysom recently shared his story on Awake At Night, a United Nations (UN) podcast.
Melissa Fleming, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, conducted the interview.
Haysom grew up in a white family in KwaZulu-Natal, and from an early age, he was conscious of apartheid.
'I think it would have been really surprising if I hadn't been able to kind of witness and acknowledge the cruelty of systematic racial discrimination,' Haysom said.
Having politically conscious parents and siblings who had been involved as activists made it easy for Haysom to become a critic of apartheid. He grew up in an environment in which opposing apartheid was a sign of your humanity rather than a source of fear.
He was detained or arrested five or six times.
Although deciding to pursue law at university, Haysom believed the law and legal route were not going to be a way in which South Africa would transform.
He said they never thought apartheid would end, but things changed when Mandela was released from prison in 1990.
The ANC asked him to join its legal and constitutional negotiations team, the Constitutional Commission, where he spent two or three years amid a group of intellectuals whose task was to negotiate and conceptualise the kind of South Africa they wanted to build and to negotiate with the National Party government on how they would get there.
'Getting there was also as complicated as trying to find the kind of formula for a perfect constitutional state that properly appreciated the need for equality among all its citizens,' Haysom said.
'It was both exciting in the conceptualisation part, but also the implementation. And I think that's what led to me being asked to be Mandela's legal advisor in the office of the Presidency while he was president.
'I think people… when they think of Mandela, they think simply of a gentle, kind old man, but he was steely, strong in the conviction he had that he was embarking on the right path. And he persevered, and as I say to my children, 'The lesson of Mandela is not just being a nice person, it's perseverance in your ideals that will change the world'.'
He said Mandela was adamant that his first government would set an example in respect for the rule of law.
Nicholas Haysom reflects on his journey from a young activist in South Africa to a key figure in global peace efforts.
Image: Isaac Billy/United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)
Following the end of Mandela's presidency, Haysom collaborated with former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, who was actively seeking a resolution to the conflict in Burundi. Nyerere's team eventually facilitated a peace agreement in Burundi.
Haysom then spent several years in Kenya, mediating efforts to achieve peace in Sudan. These efforts ultimately led to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan.
After the Sudan peace agreement, the UN made contact, asking if Haysom would work in leading a constitutional advisory team in the UN, before joining former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's team.
'There was a time when I was quite probably inappropriately proud of my engagement, particularly in Burundi and in Sudan and in South Africa, where the engagement and the approach we'd adopted had yielded fruit. But after a few years, I looked around and found that almost all of those peace agreements were in trouble. So, it's a recognition that peace agreements don't last forever, that peace itself doesn't last forever. Democracy is not something that can be taken for granted. These are all issues that require a kind of constant engagement by people of good intent,' Haysom said.
He mentioned that he is in a challenging situation in South Sudan, which struggles to find a formula and process for the community to coexist.
'There is a government formed, and we are in the process of trying to assist the South Sudanese, put in place preparations for elections.'
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