Barry Streek A fault line tore through the ranks of liberal whites this week as many rallied to sign the “declaration of commitment by white South Africans” and distanced themselves from the Democratic Alliance whose leaders have emphatically rejected the statement.
The list of those pledging themselves to the declaration reads like a who’s who of the liberal and anti-apartheid white establishment of old. They include Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, former leader of the Progressive Federal Party (PFP) and leader of the opposition during the presidency of PW Botha, Alex Boraine, another former PFP MP who has since served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and a number of Constitutional Court judges, among them Richard Goldstone, Kate O’Regan and Albie Sachs.
The cleavage in liberal ranks has exposed the DA’s vulnerability to an exodus of liberal whites unhappy about the party’s stance on the apartheid past and hardline approach on reconciliation.
Harsh words were exchanged on Thursday between the organisers of the declaration and their critics, who include DA leader Tony Leon.
Signatories to the declaration acknowledge that, as whites, they derived unjust benefits from apartheid.
No public representative of the DA has signed the declaration, although Professor Johan Maree, husband of Western Cape DA MEC Helen Zille, has appended his signature.
The party’s leadership, including deputy leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, chief whip Douglas Gibson and chair Joe Seremane, have all issued statements strongly criticising the declaration.
Leon took a break from his honeymoon to tell the Mail & Guardian that he would not sign the declaration.
Liberal and left-wing whites have been approaching the sponsors of the declaration in their droves over the past few days to affix their names to it.
Discomfort among left-liberal whites with the Democratic Party worsened when the party combined with the New National Party earlier this year to form the DA.
That alienation deepened again during this year’s local government elections, in which the DA’s populist mayoral candidate in Cape Town, Peter Marais, adopted conservative positions opposing abortion and proposing a reintroduction of the death penalty.
The DA’s support for Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete’s proposals for the reintroduction of detention without trial for terrorism has also worried the liberal-left.
Leon told the M&G on Thursday: “I thought there was a solemn compact in the 1993 and 1996 Constitutions between the majority and the minority, between the rich and poor. I have serious doubts about the politics of apology. Where is it going to end?
“There is a very sound case for the [African National Congress] to apologise for some its activities in the past. Is Mrs Mandela going to apologise? What is Carl Niehaus’s agenda?” Leon asked.
Niehaus, former ANC MP and ex-ambassador to the Netherlands, who is one of the sponsors of the declaration, responded: “We approach individuals. We didn’t ask any political party to support the declaration. I am surprised by the reaction to the simple statement that whites benefited from apartheid. No one has any obli-gation to sign the statement. But this kind of reaction is designed to prevent people from signing.
“We don’t want get to any confrontation with the DA and we are looking forward to discussions with them, including with Douglas Gibson and Tony Leon.”
But DA chair Joe Seremane said: “As a black person I refuse to believe that one section of the community deserves all the blame for our past tragedies to the point that this one section needs to signed a so-called ‘apology letter’. I don’t see anyone in the ANC coming forward with apologies for necklace murders. I also don’t see any disclosures over the atrocities committed at their military bases.”
The list of signatories to the declaration includes a number of significant liberal-left figures, among them university principals Colin Bundy (University of the Witwatersrand) and David Woods (Rhodes); judges Kathy Satchwell and Dennis Davis; editors Chris Whitfield (Cape Argus) and Phillip van Niekerk (M&G); author Andr Brink; and most of the Springbok rugby team.
Other liberal white political figures to sign include former DP MP Peter Soal, former PFP MP Jan van Gent and Dani Cohen, once the personal assistant to Leon.
According to one of the key figures behind the declaration, Charles Villa-Vicenzio, director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, the document was never intended to be rallying call for the liberal-left. “It is just an idea whose time has come,” he said this week.
But former Human Rights Commissioner and independent commentator Rhoda Kadalie said: “I think it is a disgraceful declaration. It is totally TRC. Villa-Vicencio gets paid to promote memory. It is the resurrection of the sorry ideology which has more to do with making white people feel good than it has for promoting justice.
“It is also aimed at silencing white people from being critical of the black government. If they want white people to say sorry about the past then, as a black person, I must say sorry about not spending the poverty money or providing the anti-retroviral drugs. It is of no consequence to black people to say sorry. The statement is dangerous.”
Former Black Sash presidents Mary Burton and Jenny de Tolly, as well as current chair of the Black Sash Trust Di Oliver (formerly Bishop), have signed the declaration. Another signatory is the new director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, Paul Graham.
The signatories also include Pick ‘n Pay chair Raymond Ackerman, former SA Institute of Race Relations president Franz Auerbach, philosopher Johann Degenaar, singers Des and Dawn Lindberg, CEO of Jutas Rory Wilson and former publisher David Philip.
Academics who have signed include professors Guy Butler (Rhodes), Jacklyn Cock (Wits), Renfrew Christie (University of the Western Cape), Rodney Davenport (Rhodes), Jeremy Sarkin (UWC), John de Gruchy (University of Cape Town), Lourens du Plessis (Stellenbosch), Wieland Gievers (UCT), Paul Maylam (Rhodes), Jaap Durand (UWC), Pieter le Roux (UWC), Malvern van Wyk Smith (Rhodes), Solly Benatar (UCT), Hugh Corder (UCT), Martin West (UCT), Caroline White (formerly Natal) and UCT registrar Hugh Amoore.
Bishops David Russell and Paul Verryn and theologian Beyers Naude have also signed.
Cartoonists Tony Grogan and Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), the acting head of the Diocesan College (Bishops), Mike King, poet Antjie Krog, prominent African journalist Colin Legum and his wife Margaret, who was a panelist in the Human Rights Commission investigation into alleged racism in the media, are also among the signatories.