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Mandela was brutal and unfair – De Klerk
By A Correspondent

Published: April 11, 2012

Comment

South Africa’s last white president FW De Klerk has dismissed the current media hype around anti-Apartheid hero Nelson Mandela saying that the man was often “brutal and unfair”.

Mandela was brutal and unfair – De Klerk
De Klerk questioned why the world has portrayed Nelson Mandela as a ‘saint-like’ figure when in actual fact behind closed doors this was not so,according to him.

De Klerk who though called Mandela a great leader, stated that he does not subscribe to the hagiography around Mandela.

“I do not subscribe to the general hagiography surrounding Mandela. He was by no means the avuncular and saint-like figure so widely depicted today. As a political opponent he could be brutal and quite unfair. During the negotiations and while I served as Deputy President in the Government of National Unity we often had bruising clashes,” he said.

De Klerk attributed the hype around Mandela to mere politicking.

“Such is the nature of politics,” he said.

In his specch, De Klerk yet praised certain attributes of Mandela. He continued:

“However, whenever the situation required it, he was able to rise above the political passions of the moment and join me in hammering out reasonable
compromises that enabled the process to continue. He also had the stature and
the strength to hold his fractious alliance together – even at the most
difficult junctures. The source of his authority, consciously or unconsciously,
was the fact that he was a Xhosa aristocrat – with all the bearing and natural
authority that came with his royal connections.

“However, he is a principled man and a great communicator. Through his natural
charm and consideration he played an indispensible role in promoting
reconciliation and in laying the foundations of our new non-racial nation.

“I believed him when he said on 8 May 1996, after the adoption of our new constitution, that the “founding principles of our constitution are immutable.” He described the constitution as “our national soul, our compact with one another as citizens, underpinned by our highest aspirations and our deepest apprehensions”. He said our pledge is that: “Never and never again shall the laws of our land rend our people apart or legalise their oppression and repression. Together, we shall march, hand-in-hand, to a brighter future.”

De Klerk warned against extremist views by certain members of the ANC who are advocating another political transition apart from the one which transpired in 1994.

“Now, 16 years later there are those in the ANC who are saying that “our national soul, our compact with one another as citizens” was merely a temporary compromise and that it must give way to a second transition based on less
immutable principles.

All of us should reject such thinking with all the resources that we and our constitution provide. But then, that is the other topic that Steven wanted me to address – and which you may explore in the question and answer session.

In the meantime one thing is clear. The great South African socio-political,” he said (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)