{"id":5499,"date":"2021-11-16T12:21:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T12:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful"},"modified":"2021-11-16T12:57:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T12:57:12","slug":"de-klerk-finally-useful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful","title":{"rendered":"De Klerk: Finally useful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>FW de Klerk\u2019s legacy is not complex and he should not be lionised as some latter-day Moses or a repentant sinner who offered to wash our collective feet. Being a Nobel laureate does not position you beyond reproach nor does it make you a saint.<\/p>\n

FW de Klerk was a criminal with excessive amounts of blood on his hands and only the eagerness of the black political leadership to end apartheid and to get Namibia independent kept him and his bloodthirsty crew out of jail.<\/p>\n

Every single accolade his supporters would shower upon him could in fact be seen as actions taken because of the inevitability of a costly, unjust and unjustifiable war against black people. The rest was because of Nelson Mandela\u2019s insistence on forgiving even those who were unapologetic about their sins.<\/p>\n

When black Namibians and South Africans negotiated for their freedom, there was a determination to get it done, to not walk away from the table hence the whites got away with murder. Quite literally.<\/p>\n

But while the generation of my parents was tired and forgiving and just happy that they don\u2019t have to endure the sickening suffocation of teargas or run in front of Alsations anymore, the generation of my children is not as forgiving.<\/p>\n

They are tired of giving the other cheek and live like beggars in what we tell them are their countries. If we don\u2019t want an ugly backlash from an increasingly angry underclass of unemployed youth, we need to rethink the terms and conditions of our freedom.<\/p>\n

FW de Klerk and his kin only knew comfort and privilege all their lives. His victims only know hardship and misery. Till this very day. De Klerk\u2019s posthumous joke of an acknowledgement is an insult to those who still don\u2019t know where their loved ones are and who killed their leaders.<\/p>\n

Very few of those who ordered the assassinations, planned and implemented the policies and enforced them have ever been called to account. A sincere apology consists of acknowledgement, remorse and restitution.<\/p>\n

We have not even gotten to the acknowledgement stage. Even when South Africa held a truth and reconciliation commission, there were no reparations and the criminals walked away free.<\/p>\n

In Namibia, we didn\u2019t even have that half-hearted attempt at dealing with the evil. There\u2019s no need to mollify the apartheid apologists and beneficiaries. It\u2019s not too late to hold inventory. We\u2019ve swept enough under the rug.<\/p>\n

Too many Namibians, especially in my community, are still nostalgic about the \u2018time under the Boere\u2019. Too many still say we got homes then, it wasn\u2019t that bad. Yes, apartheid was that bad. Apartheid was a crime against humanity. You didn\u2019t have the right to choose or remove your own representative.<\/p>\n

Many brilliant and talented people ended up far below their true ability because the meritocracy white Namibians are now so fond of was non-existent. We were dehumanised and our histories, languages and art were reduced and trivialised.<\/p>\n

How do you tell apartheid was that bad? Just look around you. Its ugly scars are everywhere. Half of our country\u2019s population squat in makeshift shacks on the outskirts of urban centres far away from the economic opportunities.<\/p>\n

Half of our youth are unemployed. We aren\u2019t allowed to do anything out of the ordinary to alleviate the poverty that apartheid enshrined in fear of the mythical \u2018investor\u2019 who might frown upon it. Apartheid left us with this capitalism that only allows a few elite to thrive at the expense of the masses.<\/p>\n

De Klerk was not only a supporter or complicit, he was also directly responsible for state-sponsored terrorism, in furtherance of an immoral, illegal and unjust policy, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. He didn\u2019t fall from the heavens in 1989. He was very much part of the evil empire through being in parliament and the State Security Council.<\/p>\n

He denied apartheid was evil and a crime against humanity as recently as 2020. His supposed video apology \u201cfor the pain it has caused\u201d has done nothing.<\/p>\n

It has changed nothing. The evil that apartheid brought about has never been addressed and the apartheid apologists now dare to urge us to move on, to remember that it stopped 30 years ago and that young white people have not benefitted from it.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re wrong. Young white Namibians still have it far better than their black and coloured peers. The privilege still help whites to benefit from their economic step ahead and the social capital they have inherited.<\/p>\n

De Klerk could at long last be useful for all of us as his death offers us an opportunity to finally wash our dirty linen in public, bloodstains and all.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. FW de Klerk\u2019s legacy is not complex and he should not be lionised as some latter-day Moses or a repentant sinner who offered to wash our collective feet. Being a Nobel laureate does not position you beyond reproach nor does it make you a saint. FW de Klerk was a criminal with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[234,236,2535,2644,233],"class_list":["post-5499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-de-klerk","tag-finally-useful","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nDe Klerk: Finally useful - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FW de Klerk\u2019s legacy is not complex and he should not be lionised as some latter-day Moses or a repentant sinner who off ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"De Klerk: Finally useful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FW de Klerk\u2019s legacy is not complex and he should not be lionised as some latter-day Moses or a repentant sinner who off ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-16T12:21:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-16T12:57:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2021\/11\/img-6193aa9057d3a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"De Klerk: Finally useful\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-16T12:21:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-16T12:57:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful\"},\"wordCount\":809,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2021\/11\/img-6193aa9057d3a.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"De Klerk\",\"Finally useful\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/de-klerk-finally-useful\",\"name\":\"De Klerk: Finally useful - 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