De Klerk, a product of a violent system, certainly took steps throughout his political career which went some way, if not all the way, to dismantling it
Former president FW de Klerk spaks in Washington, DC, on May 5 2009. Picture: CHIP SOMODEVILLA
The ideology of Afrikaner nationalism had been born in the previous century, largely as a result of the Boer wars. Afrikaners had been subjected to brutal abuse at the hands of British soldiers. , Pieter du Toit explains that the Afrikaners rose from being a close-knit traumatised community terrified of conventional capitalism and big institutions through supporting institutions created by their own for their own.
However, economic sanctions from the international community and the end of the Cold War each undoubtedly played a role in De Klerk smelling the coffee and realising that SA’s situation had become untenable. In 1993, De Klerk apologised for the harmful effects of apartheid, saying: “It was not our intention to deprive people of their rights and to cause misery, but eventually apartheid led to just that. Insofar as to what occurred we deeply regret it... Yes, we are sorry.”
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