Tutu speaks out in defence of De Klerk

THE former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)‚ Archbishop Desmond Tutu‚ has urged South Africans not to abandon the commitment to reconciliation.

He was responding to the laying of criminal charges last week against former President F W de Klerk and former police minister Adriaan Vlok by The Anti-Racism Action Forum.

Tutu said the consequences of the TRC’s business being left unfinished included perpetrators of apartheid-era human rights violations evading justice‚ victims being denied the closure they deserved – and cracks in the fabric of the nation being exploited by political opportunists.

“It has almost become fashionable to undermine the integrity of former president De Klerk‚ and even Madiba is being derided in some circles for ‘selling out’ in favour of white capital‚” Tutu said.

“Let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater by casting aspersions on those who led us from apartheid to democracy.”