Thisday Editorial

Federik de Klerk, former South African President, dies at age 85

The architects of Apartheid in South Africa never intended it to end suddenly. It was meant to last as a system of political and economic supremacy which needed its inherent racism to survive and thrive. The privileges which it reserved for the minority white population could only be sustained based on a segregated society. But in an unusual address to parliament in Pretoria on 2nd February 1990, former South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk who died a few days ago at the age of 85 literally broke the backbone of the very system that brought him to power and had sustained his race in pre-eminence for centuries. He announced the end of segregation of public facilities, the recognition of the African National Congress (ANC) as a legitimate political party and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years of incarceration. He followed up with practical actions that accelerated the end of the Apartheid regime as one of the world’s most obnoxious segregationist systems.

A series of negotiations with Mandela and the ANC leadership and other political groups was followed by a transitional government leading up to multiracial elections and the inauguration of the first all-inclusive government in South Africa’s history. The crowning glory of this transition to multiracialism was the birth of a rainbow nation in which skin colour ceased to be a criterion for citizen’s rights and privileges. Luckily for South Africa, Mandela was a larger-than-life statesman whose mission was the building of a nation founded on forgiveness, reconciliation, and equality of all persons under the law.

However, despite the towering image of Mandela, we must not forget that it was de Klerk’s courage and vision that brought about that outcome. It required a lot of moral courage and political sagacity to dismantle a system on which one had come to power. He could have retained Apartheid with only token concessions to the black majority while keeping the system of privileges and key segregationist policies alive. Instead, he pressured the white ruling class to see the greater benefit of ending Apartheid and replacing it with majority rule and a more equitable society.

Without the courage of de Klerk, Apartheid could have perhaps survived, Mandela could have died in prison to be remembered at best as Africa’s most important prisoner of conscience. And South Africa could have perhaps remained a hotbed of racial tension and violence. The serial bungling and bestiality of other African countries to the north of South Africa could have perhaps swung world opinion to excuse the excesses of Apartheid. These were clear tragic roads that African history did not travel because of the courage of conviction and political pragmatism of de Klerk.

It is noteworthy that Mikail Gorbachev undertook a reform of the old Soviet Union about the same time that FW de Klerk was dismantling Apartheid. But there is a significant difference between the two men. Gorbachev set out to reform but not uproot the communist bedrock of the Soviet system. He only wanted to open it up for political pluralism and market economics. The subsequent unraveling of the system such as the breakaway of the former Soviet Republics were consequences of his reform impetus rather than part of the original architecture.

On the contrary, de Klerk set out to dismantle Apartheid in its totality as a system by reaching for its moral jugular. The transitional arrangements which his government negotiated with Mandela, the ANC and others aimed at a wholesale remake of the South African nation by overturning the racist bedrock of Apartheid and replacing it with a new nation complete with a new anthem, a new flag and, most importantly, a new constitution based on the equality of all citizens under one sovereign, united by the rule of law.

This then is the precise legacy of de Klerk. As the world therefore mourns his passage, he will be remembered not only as the last white ruler of a past South Africa but also the author of the rainbow nation that the world knows today. For this act of towering moral and political courage, de Klerk stands tall as one of the authors of Africa’s modern history and an authentic hero.

Originally published at Thisday