Sparks fly as former editor praises Verwoerd
HENDRIK VERWOERD AN UNREPENTANT Allister Sparks remained defiant about his praise for apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd as a social media storm grew over his comments yesterday.
Sparks told delegates at the DA’s federal congress in Port Elizabeth that he considered Verwoerd one of the “really smart politicians” he had encountered in his career as a journalist.
“From the era of DF Malan to that of Jacob Zuma, in the course of which I have encountered some really smart politicians — the likes of ... Bernard Friedman, Margaret Bollinger, Zach de Beer, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, Martin Steyn, Japie Basson, and, yes, Hendrick Verwoerd, and also a huge number of incredibly dull and stupid ones,” Sparks said.
His comments caused outrage on Twitter and threatened to overshadow outgoing DA leader Helen Zille’s farewell speech.
They also embarrassed DA bosses who had invited Sparks to the congress to pay tribute to Zille, whom he mentored when she was a young reporter at the Rand Daily Mail, a newspaper he edited.
When asked by Sunday Times to explain his comments about Verwoerd, Sparks defended his remarks: “I thought he [Verwoerd] was a very clever man... he gave a veneer also of moral respectability to apartheid’s slogan ‘Die k@#** op sy plek’ [The K@#** in his place] en ‘die k@#**s uit die land’ [C@#**s out of the country].”
Zille, who had been standing next to Sparks during the interview, appeared uncomfortable and protested “nee, nee”.
She also shouted “no no”, as Sparks interpreted the slogan into English.
Zille was then whisked away by DA officials who cringed as Sparks explained his comments to the newspaper.
He said Verwoerd did “quite a clever job” of developing the slogan, thus sowing the seeds of enlightenment in his own party.
“He was in that context of what I said today, a very persuasive, political speaker. His own followers
listened to him in that parliament so that you could have heard a pin drop.”
To those who were offended by his statement, he said: “Oh well, that’s too bad, I don’t exist to please people. I am a commentator not a politician.”
About former Wits SRC president Mcebo Dlamini, fired from his position as SRC leader at University of Witwatersrand after declaring that he admired Adolf Hitler, Sparks said: “Well, I think he [Dlamini] needs his head read. I think he is crazy, because Hitler was crazy, he was a murderer.”
He added: “Verwoerd was wrong, desperately wrong. What he did caused great evil.”
Zille later said Sparks’s comments were taken out of context.