Glenn Babb - Return To South Africa

Return To South Africa

In 1987, Babb was recalled to South Africa to take over as head of the Africa division and deputy director-general of the department of foreign affairs. As such, he initiated the Brazzaville talks for the withdrawal of South African troops from Angola and end the country's involvement in the South African Border War. In the 1989 general election in South Africa, he entered politics as the ruling National Party's candidate in the electoral district of Randburg but was defeated by Wynand Malan, co-leader of the liberal Democratic Party. He was nevertheless appointed to a seat in the South African parliament by F.W. de Klerk who, as President of South Africa, had the constitutional right to fill four seats in parliament through direct appointment. Babb subsequently left parliament after two years, in 1991, and returned to the foreign ministry, serving as South Africa's ambassador to Italy where he opened diplomatic relations with Albania, Malta and San Marino and was appointed the first South African Permanent Representative to UN Food and Agriculture Organisation since 1963. He participated 1991-1992 in the Mozambican peace negotiations in Rome between RENAMO and FRELIMO under the aegis of the Rome Sant' Egidio community and his role is mentioned positively in Sant' Egidio's report on the success of the Peace Protocol. In 1995 he left government service. In 1995 he became chairman of AGIP Lubricants. In 1998 he was appointed consultant to the government of the Western Cape and he continued in that role till 2002. In 1998 he was appointed Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Turkey with jurisdiction for the Western, Northern and Eastern Cape Provinces. In 2010 he authored the monograph "Abubakr Effendi - A young Turk in Afrikaans" relating to the work of the Islamic scholar sent in the 19th Century by the caliph to instruct the Muslims of the Cape. He has also been active with various business pursuits such as long-lasting milk, oil lubricants, manufacturing, a tourism service, manufacturing wine vats and owning an office support and internet service. In 2005, his firm Babrius was appointed by the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries aligned to the EU to write a report, which was published in French and English by the ACP in Brussels on 13 February 2006

Babb was chairman of the Owl Club, from 2006 to 2007, a gentlemen's club, in Cape Town.

In January 2009 Babb was shortlisted for the position of Chief Executive Officer of NEPAD in the African Union.

In December 2012 he published an article in the African Yearbook of Rhetoric on rhetorical action in diplomacy with specific reference to the relative fortunes of Indians in Canada and indigenous peoples in South Africa which led to an interview on the CBCInternational rhetoric and diplomatic discourse "African Yearbook of Rhetoric" Vol 3 No 3 2012