EFF rejects FW de Klerk Foundation’s apology on apartheid utterances

17 February 2020

The EFF unequivocally rejects the F.W De Klerk Foundation's apology regarding its statement on Apartheid not being a crime against humanity. The foundation, which De Klerk has been using as a proxy to rationalise his hateful Apartheid apologist utterances needs to learn to stay out of affairs which are beyond its grasp.

As the EFF we reject the apology as one that lacks sincerity and relevance, as the individual who was the source of these hateful views remains unrepentant on his comments and avoids accountability by using a foundation which bears his name.

We believe that the time for empty apologies in South Africa as a means of reconciliation is over. Apologies for the brutality black South Africans have experienced has taken various forms in South Africa, with all of them being publicity stunts. There must be a decisive move from efforts of reconciliation to justice, as justice is the only form of recourse that can be taken against those who refuse to repent for the evils they have committed.

The acceptance of apologies without justice is exactly why black South Africans find themselves landless, undermined and on the outskirts of humanity and the economy. It is the acceptance of apologies from people who never apologised, that inspired De Klerk to declare with confidence that the segregation of black people, their humiliation, dispossession and racist separate development were not crimes against the humanity of black people.

That he lied to former President Thabo Mbeki and faked ignorance of the UN declaration on Apartheid is a sign of mockery by a man who has justified his views and refuses to accept his role in the deepening of colonialism and anti-black racism in this country.

The EFF maintains that in order for true reconciliation to be achieved in this country, men who perpetuated unspeakable crimes against black people in this country like De Klerk must face the might of the law. He must be ostracised from the project of a new and equal South Africa and have all privileges afforded to him as a former leader of the State stripped. The state De Klerk led was collapsed and so must all respect he is afforded.

De Klerk who was elected President by a racist system and at the exclusion of the majority of people in this country must be subjected to an inquest of all his crimes and those he was complicit in. He must be stripped of the Nobel Peace Prize as he has shown his lack of remorse and willingness to build a just South Africa that is mindful of the harmful nature of our past and its impact on the present.

Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 17 February 2020