Campaign for white South Africans to apologise Source: AP|Published: Wednesday December 13, 7:21 AM CAPE TOWN, Dec 12: Nearly seven years after apartheid ended, a new campaign is urging white South Africans to apologise for condoning the hated system and to contribute to a fund to help mend the economic divisions it wrought. South Africa remains divided along racial lines, with many blacks still living in poverty and most whites continuing their privileged lifestyles. Racially motivated violence is not uncommon. The apology campaign, to be officially launched on Saturday, asks whites to sign a declaration saying they actively or passively supported apartheid and owed it to South African blacks to overcome its legacy. The campaign also asks whites to donate money or time to uplift blacks. “It's necessary for whites to acknowledge that we were all beneficiaries of apartheid and need to respond with real positive action,” campaign chairman Carl Niehaus said today. “There is a sense of disappointment among the black community that whites are not committed to the new South Africa.” A 1997 campaign calling on people to sign a register expressing their regret at failing to prevent human rights violations generated little interest. But Jody Kollapen of the South African Human Rights Commission welcomed the new initiative, saying it would give whites an opportunity to act to redress apartheid wrongs, rather than just repeating rhetoric about its horrors. “It sends an important message to black South Africans that there are white South Africans out there who recognise the injustices and want to do something about it,” he said. Several prominent white South Africans already have signed the declaration, which reads: “We acknowledge that racist attitudes of white superiority and black inferiority continue to shape our lives, communities and institutions. We acknowledge that our failure to accept responsibility for apartheid has inhibited reconciliation and transformation.” Among the signatories is retired economics professor Sampie Terreblanche, a former supporter of the apartheid National Party. “People are so in the dark about what we have done they don't know the history of this country the real extent of exploitation,” he said. “It will haunt us for the next 20 or 30 years.” Acclaimed poet Antjie Krog said she signed to recognise that her highly privileged life came at the expense of others. “Maybe there is a need for a highly visible accumulate kind of action that shows whites are not in denial (about apartheid),” she said. Niehaus, a member of the ruling African National Congress and a former ambassador to the Netherlands, said a loosely affiliated private group of concerned South Africans started the campaign. Some South Africans, both black and white, fear such a campaign risks more division in a country already deeply divided on racial issues. The campaign also has been spurned by some white politicians. Martinus van Schalkwyk, leader of the New National Party the latest incarnation of the party which enforced apartheid rule from 1948 to 1994 said it would reduce whites to “handwringing apologists.” He thought the campaign would reinforce the idea that South Africa comprised two nations one black and one white. FW de Klerk, the last apartheid president, said he thought all South Africans were obliged to work for reconciliation but he had already “registered a comprehensive apology for apartheid and the pain that it had caused.” In a letter to campaign organisers, he said the declaration failed to capture apartheid's complexity. “Instead it represents an oversimplistic analysis which seeks to divide complex human interactions simply into good and evil,” said de Klerk, who shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with his successor Nelson Mandela in recognition of his efforts to end apartheid peacefully. De Klerk said he was worried that the “declaration would have the effect of assigning collective guilt to white South Africans as a group and in so doing would label them as morally inferior”. Niehaus had no comment to the criticism, but added many whites had responded positively to the campaign. Money donated under the campaign would be distributed to organisations fostering racial reconciliation, Niehaus said, adding donations were discretionary. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." 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