I ERRED, BUT Verwoerd was smart
Despite his infamous Verwoerd comment, Allister Sparks yesterday said he would not withdraw the remark. In hindsight, he should have also included Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
While acknowledging he may have made a mistake by omitting the likes of smart black leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, veteran journalist Allister Sparks yesterday refused to back down from his assertion Hendrik Verwoerd, the “father of apartheid” was a “smart politician”.
He made the remarks in a speech during the DA’s tribute to outgoing leader Helen Zille at the party’s Federal Congress in Port Elizabeth this weekend.
Sparks was Zille’s editor at the Rand Daily Mail when she broke the story of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko’s death.
“I believe in free speech,” he said yesterday. “If they want to call me a racist – I don’t know, I am not going to get into a froth about it.”
Sparks put into context what he really meant when he made the comments.
“I meant that I thought he was a clever man. I did not admire him, in fact it is far from it to suggest that I did. I said he was smart because I watched him in parliament and he held his party spellbound when he spoke.”
Sparks “profoundly” disagreed with Verwoerd’s policies and said the anger against him was “manufactured”.
“I am appalled that it’s been read in that way. I made one mistake, I should have included the black politicians … Mandela, Mbeki but not Zuma.
“I never did meet Steve Biko, but I thought he was remarkable.”
Sparks added: “The purpose was to highlight Helen Zille. And I made the point that Helen Suzman was not a strategic-minded politician – she was an issues person. I thought Zille was remarkable and strategic. The whole point was to highlight her tactical thinking – it was a masterstroke.”
His speech was not intended to be about a “list of heroes”, but rather a “sprinkling of people who stood out” in his memory. Parts of it, including the comments on Verwoerd, occurred when he was speaking off the cuff, said Sparks.
“I included him deliberately. I do believe there is such a thing as an evil genius. In my career he was my enemy No 1.”
Recalling his first interview with Verwoerd, when Sparks was 17, Sparks said Verwoerd told him “a remarkable thing, that there will never be peace until the black man has his own country”. –