Group plans on laying 22 crimi

South African Nobel Peace Laureates Nelson Mandela (L) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2nd L) arrive for the 70th birthday celebrations of fellow laureate former President FW de Klerk (R) in Cape Town, March 17, 2006. De Klerk turns 70 on March 18. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Group plans on laying 22 criminal charges against FW de Klerk for apartheid

So there’s this anti-racism group called the Anti Racism Action Forum(ARAF) – don’t worry, not many people have actually heard of them — who’ve decided to lay racism charges under apartheid against former president FW de Klerk.

Group plans on laying 22 crimi

South African Nobel Peace Laureates Nelson Mandela (L) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2nd L) arrive for the 70th birthday celebrations of fellow laureate former President FW de Klerk (R) in Cape Town, March 17, 2006. De Klerk turns 70 on March 18. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

The charges are for crimes committed against black people under apartheid and ARAF will also be charging former minister of law and order, Adrian Vlok. ARAF earlier sent out a communiqué announcing its official formation and as its first official act it will be laying charges against De Klerk and Vlok at the Hillbrow police station on Wednesday February 3rd.

 “ARAF shall lay 22 criminal charges against both FW De Klerk and Adrian Vlok for crimes committed against black people for which they didn’t get amnesty at the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission). Further complaints of racism will be laid against FW De Klerk at the South African Human Rights Commission‚” the group said.

ARAF describes itself as a “campaign against racism‚ by anti-racist civil society organisations‚ political parties‚ revolutionary movements and individuals”.

Their core focus is on white racism – they don’t believe that black people can be racist – and “land theft” from black South Africans.

“In a racist country it is logical for black people to organise themselves around their blackness and do so in their own terms, free of white supervisors. It would be counterproductive for black people as victims of racism to entrust the struggle to end racism to perpetrators of racism.”

Last month the FW de Klerk foundation submitted complaints of racism towards white people to the SAHRC, citing 45 separate social media posts inciting violence against white South Africans. The foundation was quoted as saying that “by far the most virulent and dangerous racism – expressed in the most extreme and violent language – has come from disaffected black South Africans.”

ARAF believes, as many others do, that black people cannot be classified as racist.

“Black people are neither the beneficiaries of race based privilege nor are they responsible for the imposition of racial prejudice and racism. Our resistance to dispossession, exploitation and systematic dehumanization in response to the legitimization of White Supremacy cannot be racist.”