De Klerk apologises for the past
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.PRESIDENT F W de Klerk apologised for the first time yesterday for the sins of apartheid, a politically charged gesture shifting him away from the right-wing camp and giving moral substance to his oft-proclaimed committment to a new South Africa free of racial intolerance.
'It was not our intention to deprive people of their rights and to cause misery, but eventually separate development and apartheid led to just that. In so far as that occurred, we deeply regret it,' Mr de Klerk said at a news conference in Cape Town.
'Deep regret goes much further that just saying you are sorry,' he added. 'Deep regret says that if I could turn the clock back and if I could do anything about it, I would have liked to have avoided it. Yes, we say we are sorry.'
He cited as particularly reprehensible the impact of racial laws impeding free movement around the country and allowing the police forcibly to remove blacks from their ancestral land. Apartheid, he said, 'effectively took away freedom from people on the basis of race, it impaired the dignity of people, it impaired people's development'.
He repeated his earlier arguments for refusing to apologise, however, claiming that the National Party's early leaders had not been vicious men but had been driven by the notion that 'separate development' was for the good of all South Africans.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments