Confessions from the grave – a posthumous apology comes too late

The last apartheid leader, FW de Klerk, died peacefully at his home, aged 85, in the luxury suburb of Fresnaye, Cape Town, on 11 November 2021. He never had to face justice for the crimes of apartheid, its death squads, its massacres, or the way it deprived people of education, property, opportunity, and freedom.

In a land without justice, De Klerk died a free man.

The nation was divided between those who viewed De Klerk as a bold, courageous statesman, who bravely ended apartheid, and those who couldn’t see beyond the crimes of De Klerk’s past.

They were both right.

We don’t like nuance and complexity. The world is simpler if you see it only in shades of black and white. Legacies are easier when you can gloss over the facts and focus on the political statement you wish to make.

For many in the country who didn’t understand the history of the transition to democracy, De Klerk was a complicated figure.

He grew through the ranks of the racist National Party, defending both apartheid and its softened nomenclature of “separate development”. He oversaw the ministry of education, attempting to limit the number of black students entering university through a quota system.

When former hard-line State President PW Botha suffered a stroke in 1989, Botha’s chosen successor, Barend du Plessis, was defeated in a vote for party leadership by a “verkrampte” (reactionary) De Klerk. Given his conservative background, many feared the worst from the new leader.

But by the time State President FW de Klerk assumed office, the world was changing. South Africa was bankrupt, Western banks refused to re-finance South African debt, the Berlin wall had fallen, the Soviet Union was collapsing, and South Africa was no longer needed by the United States, Britain, and France as a bulwark against communism.

De Klerk was nothing if not pragmatic. He unbanned the African National Congress, released political prisoners, freed Nelson Mandela, and embarked on a process to dismantle all of apartheid’s racist legislation.

De Klerk described it as a conversion, but this was no conversion on the road to Damascus. De Klerk continued to support “third-force activity”, encouraging local tribal militia forces in the “homelands”, the traditional Zulu impi army of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and the ultra-nationalist white right wing. He did this to gain the political upper hand in negotiations. It was Kissinger-esque in its duplicity.

Even going into the Codesa (Convention for a Democratic South Africa) negotiating process, De Klerk believed that he would be able to carve out a special place for whites and Afrikaners in a new democratic dispensation. The relationship between De Klerk and Mandela was often angry, frustrating, and volatile.

Along the way, De Klerk conceded on the notion of group rights in favour of individual rights. He secured a “sunset clause” originally proposed by former South African Communist Party leader Joe Slovo that ensured no wholesale dismissal of Afrikaans public servants. Thereafter, De Klerk assumed the position of deputy president to Mandela.

Lauded internationally with a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and crowned as the man who had ended apartheid, all De Klerk’s accolades were completely justifiable. Time magazine named him one of its people of the year in 1993, and President Thabo Mbeki bestowed upon him the Order of Mapungubwe in 2003.

In 1991, after Israel lifted economic sanctions on South Africa, De Klerk, accompanied by his then wife, Marike, and Foreign Minister Pik Botha, visited Israel, the first South African leader to do so in 25 years.

De Klerk toured Yad Vashem and received an honorary doctorate from Bar Ilan University.

With South Africa’s racist race classification legislation repealed, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to increase co-operation in science, culture, industry, agriculture, tourism, the economy, and other fields.

Upon his return to South Africa, the South African Jewish community hosted a 700-person dinner for De Klerk at the Carlton Hotel.

The former president’s appearance at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was, however, less than satisfactory. De Klerk stated, “It was not our intention to deprive people of their rights and to cause misery, but eventually apartheid led to just that. Insofar as to what occurred, we deeply regret it … Yes we are sorry.” Many believed that De Klerk’s “apology” didn’t go anywhere near far enough.

In his posthumous video to the people of South Africa, De Klerk finally said what so many had waited so long to hear. “I, without qualification, apologise for the pain and the hurt and the indignity and the damage that apartheid has done to black, brown, and Indians in South Africa. I do so not only in my capacity as the former leader of the National Party, but also as an individual.” But, by then, it was too late.

During his three-day whistle-stop visit to Israel, De Klerk toured the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious sites in Jerusalem’s ancient walled city.

In 2015, De Klerk told Israel Radio that comparisons between apartheid South Africa and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians were both “odious” and “unfair”.

Mandela and De Klerk remained icons for many in the Israeli peace camp. Gershon Baskin, the renowned Israeli peace activist, wrote an op-ed piece in 2020 questioning the whereabouts of the Palestinian Mandela and the Israeli De Klerk. Sadly, the question was never answered.

There are no saints or heroes in the real world. We judge De Klerk by our values and morals today with the benefit of hindsight without acknowledging that, as flawed as he was, he was a creature of his time, and the retrospective imposition of today’s value system on the slayer of apartheid does us no good.

It’s the same flaw that judges Mahatma Gandhi today as a racist not a liberator. It’s the same flaw that will ensure we are all judged poorly in the future.

De Klerk was both an oppressor and a liberator – whichever narrative you choose may well reflect more upon you than upon the deceased former statesman.

• Howard Sackstein is chairperson of the SA Jewish Report.