Former president De Klerk deserves no honour
REFRAMING the last apartheid president, F W de Klerk, as a liberation hero is nauseating at best. It is also a false painting of history.
Yes, De Klerk negotiated with ANC leaders and called for their unbanning. That will be recorded in history as it should, but to give him honour is stretching it.
According to The Times, the City of Cape Town wants to rename part of its N1 freeway F W de Klerk Boulevard after De Klerk. The move by the City of Cape Town, in honour of the 25th anniversary of the speech he gave in 1990 announcing the unbanning of the ANC, is simply giving a man much more than he deserves.
No shocker that DA leader Helen Zille has supported this move.
To digress, every time I think I am leaning in towards the DA, Zille always manages to do something to remind me that under her leadership, I would never feel at home in the party as a black person.
Did this leader consider how black people who experienced De Klerk’s leadership under apartheid would feel when driving along the N1 or F W de Klerk Boulevard? Chances are slim.
As can be expected of Zille, she will give facts of his speech in 1990 and his contribution towards the peace settlement in 1994. Why these facts need to be honoured is beyond me.
The reason De Klerk doesn’t deserve any honour is because he did not negotiate from his own will. Sanctions against South Africa were heavy, the western powers had sidelined the country and the economy was bankrupt.
In essence, De Klerk was forced by pressure to come to the negotiation table.
His 1990 speech would have been revolutionary if he had done it of his own will, but he was forced to the negotiation table. It is a known fact that apartheid simply was not working.
A war between black and white was becoming imminent as black South Africans were not toeing the unjust lines anymore.
That is the difference between him and Nelson Mandela, and hence he did not deserve the Nobel peace laureate in the first place. Mandela chose the route of forgiveness of his own accord.
Had De Klerk made a speech or moves in dismantling apartheid prior to all these events, his call for a non-racial society would have been viewed as sincere. As it stands, it is not.
The move by De Klerk was a matter of sur vival.
De Klerk has received far more than he deserves.
He didn’t deserve the Nobel peace prize and I was utterly shocked when I saw De Klerk named an icon on the SABC3 programme, 21 Icons.
And now Cape Town wants to honour him with a key street in the city ? It is mind-boggling. If the City of Cape Town does not think this move is not going to open old wounds along racial lines, it is clearly naive – that includes Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Zille, who are among the 27 people who have signed for the renaming of the highway.
The ANC has already stated that it will oppose the move. According to the Business Day, the ANC leader in the Cape Town council, Tony Ehrenreich, said: “It is enough that De Klerk got an ill-gotten Nobel prize.
“We cannot now have streets named after him. We will oppose it.”
All De Klerk deserves it to be recorded in history for his contribution to the new political dispensation, but honour is too much of a reward for his contribution.
Let’s leave the honour for people who deserve it.