AfriForum boss ‘dilutes’ apartheid crimes
AFRIFORUM chief executive Kallie Kriel was seeking to dilute the damages, which were beyond just murders, the apartheid government had caused to the black population by denying that apartheid was a crime against humanity, says advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza.
He is a former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
In an interview with 702 talk radio show host Eusebius McKaiser, Kriel said: “You cannot equate crimes against humanity with apartheid as there was not a mass killing of people.”
The radio discussion was held after vice-chancellor and principal at the University of the Witwatersrand Professor Adam Habib took to Twitter to criticise AfriForum for engaging with “a known fascist”, John Bolton, who is US President Donald Trump’s national security adviseor.
During the radio interview Kriel said according to his records, only 700 people were killed by the apartheid government security forces.
“His statement is an attempt to rewrite and revise history.
“It is the same kind of thing that is dangerous because the Nazis… started by denying the fact that the Jewish had a right to existence,” Ntsebeza said.
Ntsebeza said the UN Security Council had declared the apartheid system a crime against humanity, not only because of murders that were committed by the regime.
“Apartheid was a system where people died of malnutrition. Under apartheid, children for years and years never reached the age of five because of malnutrition.
“So it was something approaching the Holocaust, and it was silly of Mr Kriel to claim that the apartheid atrocities that led to people dying were only the number of people he could count,” he said.
Ntsebeza said Kriel’s figures were incorrect because the apartheid government’s killings dated back to 1960 and involved state-sponsored blackon-black violence and other murders that happened in the front-line states.
He said because of denialists like Kriel there were white farmers who continued to perpetuate apartheid through acts such as killing their employees.
He said most white perpetrators of apartheid atrocities had refused to appear before the TRC and instead mocked it.
“The right-wingers and even white people who did not define themselves as right-wingers did not go to the TRC.
“It is clear that it was because they harboured notions such as those espoused by Kriel in the 702 interview,” he said.
Kriel told McKaiser “farm murders are not normal murders, if there is such a thing – people are tortured”.
Yesterday, Kriel told Independent Media AfriForum had reached the figure of 700 deaths during apartheid through research conducted by his deputy Alana Bailey and from information gathered from the SA Human Rights Commission.
Kriel said he recognised that apartheid abused and infringed human rights.
“But the problem is that people compare it with Hitler killing millions of people in gas chambers.
“But apartheid did not go to that extent. The crime against humanity is when you take a decision to kill all people, and that is how I see it,” said Kriel.
Habib said Afriforum was linking up with fascists around the world and this was socially unacceptable.
“They have met with Germany’s far-right AfD, France’s National Front, Italy’s Five Star Movement and parts of Trump’s administration that are fascist.
“This is transnational relationship building in the far-right grouping of protofascists,” said Habib.