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. 
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