EFF statement on the death of FW de Klerk

11 November 2021

The EFF notes the death of the Former Apartheid President F.W De Klerk, who presided over a murderous and inhumane regime of terror against African people. De Klerk, who denied that the legislated separate development, exploitation, torture and murder of black people was a crime against humanity, dies with no honour, and with the dark cloud of having maimed and traumatised families across our nation.

As a President of Apartheid, De Klerk holds no legitimate claim to any title or honour of having led this country. He was a President of an undemocratic and racist society, which elected him as a minority. He was a President who led on the basis of the political and economic disenfranchisement of the majority black population of South Africa.

It is for this very reason that the EFF calls for De Klerk not to be given a State Funeral of any category, as he lost the right to be honoured the day that the evil regime he led collapsed in 1994. It was the Apartheid era that was best placed to honour De Klerk as its loyal servant, not a democratic society that is committed to reversing the ills of the dark days of black exploitation.

To honour De Klerk with a State Funeral would be to spit in the face of gallant liberation heroes who suffered in his hands, and had their children murdered in his quest to stifle the freedom of black people. A State Funeral for F.W De Klerk would be an insult to the families of the Cradock Four, it would undermine the memory of the people of Boipatong, Mthatha, Bhisho, the people of Vosloorus and many communities who were maimed by his state-sponsored black on black violence.

The EFF will oppose through public protest and all means necessary, a State funeral for a man who died without ever accounting for the blood on his hands. It cannot be the democracy that he killed so many to prevent, that honours F.W De Klerk.

De Klerk died denying the humanity of the black people that Apartheid subjugated and murdered, and was on a desperate mission to cleanse a legacy of genocide. A democratic society must never partake in assisting him to build a false legacy, which will erase the dead bodies his life is marked by.

Issued by Leigh-Ann Mathys, Elections Spokesperson, EFF, 11 November 2021