Marion Edmunds
TRUTH and Reconciliation Commission revelations about National Party leader FW De Klerk could cost him a major award from internationally renowned Yale University, in the United States.
The university’s law school has been planning to award De Klerk the Harper Memorial Fellowship for distinguished public service to the South African community.
Losing the prestigious award, fewer than four years after sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with President Nelson Mandela, will be a blow to De Klerk’s international reputation.
Yale students are demanding the law school rethink the award, after recent commission reports suggested De Klerk knew of death squad operations while he was president. It is understood the award selection committee is now revisiting the issue.
Regular protest meetings have been held on the campus and petitions drawn up, and this week students met the selection committee to pressure them into withdrawing the offer to De Klerk. He is due on campus in April to receive it.
“Many students believe that for all of his success in bringing about a new South Africa, De Klerk is at root a fundamental abuser of human rights and guilty of crimes against humanity,” editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, Yale Daily News, Jake Sullivan, told the Mail & Guardian.
Law School dean Anthony Kronman declined to respond to questions this week, saying answers might be available in a few days.
But sources say his office has been deeply embarrassed by the protests, particularly as the award has already been offered to De Klerk.
Justine White, a South African studying at Yale, said recent details released by the commission indicated De Klerk “clearly had [at the very least] knowledge of [and therefore responsibility for] military involvement in apartheid dirty tricks.
“We think this would be disastrous for the international prestige of the Law School. The faculty is clearly engaged in a reconsideration of the issues and should be taking a decision which way to go fairly soon.”
De Klerk’s spokesman, Fanus Schoeman, said that they did not know about the student’s protests, but did know about the award.