Background
Pieter was born on November 11, 1923, son of a one-time South African cabinet minister, at Cape Town.
Pieter was born on November 11, 1923, son of a one-time South African cabinet minister, at Cape Town.
Educated at the Diocesan College, Cape Town. Graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pembroke College, Cambridge University then went on to Harvard University in the United States of America.
He served in the Middle East and Europe during the Second World War. After a high-flying international education, he moved the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1950 to manage family farms. He went into politics in the early 1960s through his involvement with farming trade bodies, and became a government minister responsible for propaganda. One of the leading agitators for Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, Van der Byl was afterwards responsible for introducing press censorship. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to persuade international opinion to recognise Rhodesia, but was popular among members of his own party.
Promoted to the cabinet in 1968, Van der Byl became a spokesman for the Rhodesian government and crafted a public image as a diehard supporter of continued white minority rule. In 1974 he was made Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence at a time when Rhodesia's only remaining ally, South Africa, was supplying military aid. His extreme views and brusque manner made him a surprising choice for a diplomat (a November 1976 profile in The Times described him as "a man calculated to give offence"). After offending the South African government, Van der Byl was removed from the Defence Ministry.
In the late 1970s Van der Byl was willing to endorse the Smith government's negotiations with moderate black nationalist leaders and rejected attempts by international missions to broker an agreement. He served in the short-lived government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, following the Internal Settlement. After the country's reconstitution as Zimbabwe in 1980, Van der Byl remained in politics and close to Ian Smith; he loudly attacked former RF colleagues who had gone over to support Robert Mugabe. He retired to South Africa after the Mugabe government abolished the parliament seats reserved for whites in 1987, and died in 1999 at the age of 76.
Dilettante of the Smith regime, proud of beating economic sanctions for his favourite French after-shave lotion. Watchdog against subversion even to the point of banning the editor of “Punch” because he ran “a vitriolic left-wing journal”. Ambitious for more power, he keeps fit with recreations listed as “hunting, shooting and fishing”.