Deny all you want, ANC failed SA

’89 was a watershed year, both for South Africa and the world. It was when two oppressive systems set in motion a process to avert a bloody revolution… but ended up with a revolutionary change anyway.

SA president FW de Klerk forever changed the face of the country when, on 2 February, he announced the unbanning of political parties, including the ANC, Pan Africanist Congress and SA Communist Party, and the impending release of Nelson Mandela.

Later that year, as liberal reform started to raise its head in parts of the empire controlled by the Soviet Union, the first domino – the Berlin Wall – effectively fell.

In the case of South Africa, 30 years on, there are many who refuse to recognise the importance of the De Klerk announcement. The woke and the ANC itself would rather not deal with the reality that, had De Klerk not effectively started the dismantling of apartheid, the country would have faced a long, drawn-out civil war and might still not be free today.

The ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, were not close to overthrowing the government by force. It was pressure from the international community, sanctions and the building political ferment within the country that persuaded the National Party to start talking seriously to liberation movements.

Also forgotten by many people is the fact that white voters decided, in the 1992 referendum, to voluntarily hand over power to the black majority – the first time in history this happened.

Apartheid undoubtedly left a terrible legacy which is still apparent today and many white people still benefit from the privilege of those years.

However, the ANC government has manifestly failed to deliver a better life to its supporters through its mismanagement and looting but uses finger-pointing and race-baiting to divert attention from that sad reality.