Van Rensburg's path to Botswana

From an early age issues of his own identity in a divided and unjust society surrounded him. He was born in Durban in December 1931. His parents separated when he was young and he was raised by his grandmother, an Afrikaner who had married a Frenchman from Mauritius named Lagesse. She subsequently accepted the Roman Catholic faith of her husband, resulting in young Patrick being brought up as a Catholic and speaking English in the home, while using the Lagesse surname. 

It the above context he would maintain that it was only in his later teen years that it dawned upon him that he was an Afrikaner. After his studies he joined the civil service and started to further appreciate the ambiguous historic role of Afrikaner resistance to, and collaboration with, the forces of British imperialism. But, unlike most of his peers his sense of injustice evolved beyond his own tribe.