YCL Appalled by FW De Klerk utterances, Calls for a Public Apology

13 May 2012

The YCLSA [uFasimba] is appalled but not suprised by statements made by the last apartheid state president, FW De Klerk, made in an interview with CNN in the past week.

Recently, De Klerk has positioned himself as an apologist for apartheid and has used his Foundation as an instrument to journey through nostalgic memories of white minority rule.

De Klerk's charade are meant to rewrite history and project apartheid as a justifiable system, and has systematically repeated statements made by its founding fathers and his political ancestors such as Hendrik Verwoerd, with the hope that we have all forgotten how millions of South Africans sacrificed their lives and some  died to have this democracy.

For De Klerk to equate Bantustans with "little democracies" and to suggest that the only reason why there had to be reforms of the political system was economic illustrates that De Klerk did not in the first place deserve the Noble Peace Prize and can never be equated to Nelson Mandela (as he wants the world to believe).

We are in this mess of structural unemployment, huge inequalities in terms of incomes, skewed socio-economic inequalities, huge gap in terms of land ownership and racialised ownership and control of the economy because De Klerk fought so dearly in the last days to protect white previlages in perpetuity. For him to have the guts of even cleansing himself from the current and future mess this country will experience smacks of sheer  opportunism of the highest quality.

We have forgiven De Klerk for his government's role of financing the third force, delaying tactics during the negotiations and failure to protect the townships and rural areas after he became president, but we can never forget his quietness in this period and the fact that he benefitted by staying longer in power.

His recent utterances also illustrates how he was never committed to hand over popular power, and is bitter that the white minority apartheid government has fallen. We view his utterances as having a dire consequence to the project of nation-building and reconcilliation and actually put all that has been achieved thus far at risk.

One wonders whether De Klerk want to replace the late Eugene Terreblanche at a public level as a narrow political and right-wing nuisance due to his stance and attacks on the building of a non-racist and democratic society.

To further suggest that the for the ANC to split is equal to democracy is to reduce our people and the electorate into a bunch of ethnic and. nationalistic (especially black) stupids unable to understand his archaic and fossilated view on democracy.

For your information, Mr. De Klerk, whilst you were hiding in some unidentified political grave, there were attempts to split the ANC and form a crumbling political party called COPE, but with that failure, democracy in our country remains a wish for many parts in the continent and the world.

As we pursue the 'second transition' of deepening democracy, non-racialismsm, non-sexism and building a prosperous society; we are confident that your 'second going' is imminent and will happen as quietly as your first. So, we ask politely, withdraw your racist defense of apartheid and anti-black and anti-ANC statements or we will petition the Noble Foundation to withdraw its erroneous award to you.

Statement issued by the Buti Manamela, YCLSA National Secretary, May 13 2012

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