South Africa’s de Klerk to speak at petroleum conference in Calgary

Canada’s oilpatch can learn the lessons of dramatic change from his country’s journey from apartheid to democracy, South Africa’s former president said Tuesday.

F.W. de Klerk, who presided over the end of that discriminatory minority rule and shared a Nobel Peace Prize with human rights activist Nelson Mandela, will deliver that message during the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary this week.

“We went through the fundamentals of change, we went through deep introspection in South Africa in ending apartheid,” said de Klerk, 82, who was president of the country from 1989 to 1994.

Part of what Canada has to face, he said, is dealing seriously and honestly with First Nations in developing infrastructure like pipelines.

In South Africa during the waning days of apartheid, the government and its then-opponents sequestered themselves until they hammered out solutions — something Canadians should consider, said de Klerk.

“In ending apartheid, we took our cabinet into the bush for what we called bush conferences where we had to look people in the eye and nobody had an excuse to run out,” he said.

“It worked, it brought us to the point of building consensus.”

Canada also needs to create more energy self-sufficiency, said de Klerk, who noted the country still imports a good portion of its fossil fuels.

But the country also has to be bolder in transitioning to less-polluting energy alternatives in the face of environmental critics and climate change.

That’s particularly vital to South Africans whose cities, most notably Cape Town, are confronting extreme shortages of water, a resource that could run out within a year, he said.

Climate change, said de Klerk, is “most certainly” contributing to that problem in a country that’s making progress in developing energy sources like wind, solar and bio-mass.

Though not known as a fossil fuel producer, de Klerk said some of the same disputes plaguing Canada’s energy sector have cropped up in South Africa.

“There are natural gas finds in the middle of the country but there’s great opposition to fracking it — sheep farmers are very worried the water supply could be polluted,” he said.

Looking back on his role in ending apartheid, de Klerk said he has no regrets.

“The big decisions I took I would take again, it had to be done to avert a catastrophe,” he said.

And his admiration for the man he broke bread with to transform his country’s governance hasn’t dimmed.

“(Mandela) showed a remarkable lack of bitterness and dedicated his life after being released from prison to reconciliation, de Klerk said.

While acknowledging the challenges of achieving the same thing in Canada with its First Nations, de Klerk said Canada “is doing reasonably well compared to a country like Australia.”

De Klerk speaks Thursday at 3 p.m. in an event hosted by the Canadian Energy Executive Association.