WHITE South Africans are divided over a proposed declaration apologising for apartheid and the launch of a development and reconciliation fund which organisers say will enable whites to “take responsibility for the past and to redress the legacy of apartheid.”
The “declaration of commitment by white South Africans” has drawn broad support, including from national rugby team coach Harry Viljoen and captain Andre Vos, Afrikaans poet Antjie Krog and Wilhelm Verwoerd, the grandson of former prime minister and one of apartheid’s architects Hendrik Verwoerd.
However, Democratic Alliance deputy leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk and former president FW de Klerk have rejected the declaration, with Van Schalkwyk saying “white South Africans must not be reduced to hand-wringing apologists.”
De Klerk said he believed that all South Africans had a duty to work for reconciliation but he had already “registered a comprehensive apology for apartheid and the pain that it had caused”.
“We need to acknowledge we have benefited from apartheid and apologise, and be practical about what we can do to build a new South Africa,” said chairman Carl Niehaus, an Afrikaans-speaking African National Congress member and former ambassador to the Netherlands.
The “Home for All” initiative, chaired by Niehaus and former Truth and Reconciliation commissioner Mary Burton, is not tied to any political party or institution.
The declaration acknowledges that apartheid inflicted massive damage on black South Africans and that all whites benefited from it.
“We therefore believe that it is right and necessary to commit ourselves to redressing these wrongs. We pledge to use our skills, resources and energy towards promoting a non-racial society whose resources are used to the benefit of all its people,” the declaration said.
Niehaus said the initiative was not only about contributing money but also skills and he challenged all white South Africans to join it.
Van Schalkwyk said the declaration strengthened President Thabo Mbeki’s “two nation” concept and would lead to greater racial polarisation and tension in South Africa.
The Mineworkers’ Union said the declaration was unbalanced because it only focused on the racism and discrimination of the past and made no mention of the current racism and discrimination against whites in the labour market and in other areas.