The De Klerk Saga is an Opportunity for Healing
18 February 2020
In my long journey in politics, I have seen our country’s history written and rewritten many times.
Twenty-six years into democracy, it would be easy to view the past as a simple dichotomy of right versus wrong, good versus evil and black versus white. In this narrative, certain protagonists become symbols of either side. Just as Madiba became the symbol of our righteous struggle, there are efforts now to make former President FW de Klerk the symbol of an evil regime.
But our past is far more complex and it is both wrong and dangerous to reduce the truth of history to the equivalent of a soundbite. The truth is that former President FW de Klerk made a major contribution to the dismantling of apartheid. The tragedy is that he demolished that entire contribution by denying that apartheid was a crime against humanity.
His denial opened a wound that remains in the heart of millions of South Africans. Yet when he was challenged on it, he did not apologise. Instead, he dug in his heels and presented a statement through the de Klerk Foundation dismissing the legitimacy of the United Nations’ Convention which classified apartheid as a crime against humanity.