The rights guaranteed to all South Africans under the Constitution were being eroded in the name of ”necessary but overzealous transformation”, former state president FW de Klerk said on Thursday
These rights pertained to non-discrimination, property, language, education and religion, he told the SA-Israel Chamber of Commerce in Johannesburg.
If this tendency continued, the sense of threat among some communities would increase, De Klerk said, according to a statement issued on the chamber’s behalf.
”They would inevitably become alienated from other communities.”
Despite its many achievements, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had not succeeded in promoting true reconciliation, he said.
”We should address our legacy of grievances and memories of past wrongs by first taking the difficult step of forgiving those who have wronged us.”
Forgiveness alone was not enough. There had to be restitution, De Klerk said.
”In our case we needed to put right that which was wrong. I believe we went a long way in doing so when we abolished apartheid and took the initiative to establish a new society based on justice for all, and committed to the attainment of equality.”
De Klerk recently returned from a high-level conference in Israel, the statement read.
He said he had detected a lack of true commitment by the Israelis and the Palestinians to make the United States-backed ”road map” to peace succeed.
The plan — still the subject of many disagreements — is a blueprint for ending the violence that erupted in September 2000 and establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005.
De Klerk said: ”The process of negotiation has to be de-politicised and it must be fair to both sides for it to work properly.”
Both sides had to be prepared to make profound sacrifices.
On partitioning Israel, he said a similar effort by means of South Africa’s homelands system had failed dismally.
”We failed because whites wanted to hold on to too much land, they were too greedy. Partitioning Israel will have to be fair to all otherwise it will fail.”
The former National Party leader cautioned that it was dangerous to work with Palestinian ”factions”, like his party did when they dealt with homeland leaders who were not truly representative of the black majority.
”It is time for the political leadership on both sides to stop using negotiations as a political power base,” he said. – Sapa