Fifty years after Bruce Haigh resisted apartheid, South Africa honours fearless Australian diplomat

Bruce Haigh, who died in 2023, was second secretary in the Australian mission in South Africa from 1976 to 1979. He used his diplomatic immunity to help activists opposed to apartheid escape the country. Photograph: Facebook

The former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh would rightly be proud of his inclusion on South Africa’s Wall of Names at the country’s Freedom Park, honouring those who resisted apartheid.

But the many who knew and loved Haigh, one of Australia’s least conventional but more effective and fearless diplomats, suspect he might also have been somewhat bemused that his name was being added to the wall on Friday at the same time as those of the former prime ministers Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser.