President Thabo Mbeki called on Afrikaner professionals on Sunday to assist in the reconciliation and reconstruction of South Africa.
”We know there are many professionals among minority groups especially Afrikaners who want to take up this challenge,” he told reporters in Pretoria.
He was speaking at the presentation of a joint declaration by the African National Congress (ANC) and New National Party (NNP) in response to the final Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report recently released.
”There are some government departments which lack skills for instance. People who can come up and say we want to be part of the reconstruction process and solution are welcome.”
Mbeki said the joint declaration by the two parties was their response on how to take forward the findings and recommendations of the TRC report.
The parties had been looking at how best to deal with the tasks that emanated from the report, he said.
”We proceeded from the position that the country’s political landscape was defined by the (New) National Party and the ANC and so it is acceptable peaceful resolutions (that) come from the two organisations.
”We used to be antagonists a few decades ago and now we strive to bring our people together and foster reconciliation.”
Mbeki said the two parties would present the declaration to a number of organisations, including civil society and other political parties.
”Obviously other political parties would decide on their own how they wish to actively respond to the TRC report if they do not have policies in place already.”
NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said that due to the completion of the TRC report, it was necessary for South Africans to realise they were stronger and more united as a nation.
”Up to now, our relations were characterised by mistrust, bloodshed and appalling human rights records,” he said.
”It is through political will by the two organisations this perspective has changed for the better.”
Van Schalkwyk said all South Africans were enjoying equal privileges and minority groups did not need to feel marginalised.
”We need not to walk away and rather bring all the required expertise to the table for the betterment of the country,” he said.
The declaration says the country has became a model for reconciliation among competing groups in a previously divided society, proving that all South Africans can succeed when working together.
”At the same time, we recognise that much remains to be done further to nurture the emerging spirits.”
The two parties pledged to work together to build a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.
They also agreed to encourage the flowering of the talents of all people in the fields of sport, culture and the arts, encouraging respect for all languages and religions.
Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip Douglas Gibson reacted to the joint declaration by saying the NNP and the ANC ”deserved each other”.
”Political observers find it mildly amusing that the ANC seeks to bring about reconciliation using the NNP as an instrument,” Gibson said in a statement.
”The NNP today has little support, and it speaks for no discernible section of the nation. Opposition voters want the ANC supported when it deserves it, and vigorously opposed when it does not.
”The Democratic Alliance is the only nationwide party that is capable of providing sensible, principled and tough opposition,” he said. – Sapa