ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe. Image via Twitter: @pulemabe
FW de Klerk Foundation’s apartheid statement ‘blatant whitewash’ – ANC
After the EFF’s announcement that it will be opening a forensic inquest into the murders committed during apartheid under the regime of FW de Klerk, the ANC also weighed in on the matter.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe. Image via Twitter: @pulemabe
The African National Congress (ANC) has condemned the statement by the FW de Klerk Foundation “denying that apartheid was a crime against humanity as a blatant whitewash”.
The statement, released by the foundation on Friday 14 February, followed after the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) “bullied” the former president at the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday, calling for him to leave the House of Parliament.
The FW de Klerk Foundation statement claims that the United Nation’s classification of apartheid as a crime against humanity formed part of an agenda by the Soviet Union and the ANC along with its allies to stigmatise white South Africans. The statement also sought to justify and reason as to why apartheid was not a crime against humanity.
The ANC ruling party weighed in on the matter after EFF leader Julius Malema spoke at the Press Club of South Africa, in Cape Town, on Friday.
Malema made full use of his press club opportunity to take another swipe at FW de Klerk, accusing him of being a murderer for the role he played in apartheid-era crimes. De Klerk helped negotiated a transition to democracy in the 1990s, but his legacy will always be associated with his time with the National Party.
Malema then went on to express his dismay at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s SONA speech, saying it presented no new ideas. He also slammed what he saw as “backtracking” on land expropriation, before labelling the president as De Klerk’s “ice boy” — a derogatory term for a servant of someone more powerful.
EFF forensic audit into murders
The EFF has also announced that it will be opening a forensic inquest into the murders committed during apartheid under the regime of the former president.
EFF spokesperson Delisile Ngwenya said government must also take action against those who seek to deny the severity and injustice of apartheid.
The EFF will explore all legal options to reopen a forensic inquest against De Klerk on all people who were killed by the state under his presidency with the aim of prosecuting him for the apartheid murders. It is evident now that De Klerk will only appreciate that apartheid was a crime against humanity if he faces prosecution. The parliament should enact laws that criminalise apartheid denialism.”
ANC weighs in on FW de Klerk Foundation statement
On Sunday, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe voiced the party’s opinion concerning the FW de Klerk Foundation’s statement:
“Mr FW De Klerk’s assertion in the interview, 25 years into our democracy, which denies that apartheid was a crime against humanity, flies in the face of our commitments to reconciliation and nation-building.
“The ANC calls on Mr De Klerk and his foundation not to undermine the compact that forms the foundation of our democracy, which is that we deal with the past through institutional mechanisms and the rule of law,” he said.
According to Mabe, the ANC would not abandon the project of nation-building.
“Despite these deeply ill-advised statements by the foundation, the ANC would not be derailed from the project of continuing to rebuild the nation from the ashes of apartheid and its legacies of poverty, unemployment, and inequality,” Mabe said.
“We shall continue to work together to ensure the human dignity of all our people, and the tasks set in the Constitution of our land to ‘recognise the injustices of the past … heal the divisions of the past, and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights’.
“In the interests of advancing reconciliation and nation-building, the ANC calls on the FW de Klerk Foundation to unconditionally retract its irresponsible statement and start showing commitment to the building of a South Africa we all want,” Mabe said.
– Additional reporting by African News Agency (ANA), editing by Jacques Keet
