Reports that students have been prohibited from speaking Afrikaans – even in private conversations – at the University of Stellenbosch – are deeply disturbing. They are the latest development in the sorry decline of the language at South Africa’s oldest (and once-upon-a-time) Afrikaans university.
South Africa’s former president during apartheid calls for the pandemic to be a turning point in strengthening the rule of law and empowering survivors.
The FW de Klerk Foundation has taken note of the differing manner in which the Judicial Services Commission of South Africa (JSC) appears to investigate complaints against members of the judiciary.
The FW de Klerk Foundation takes pleasure in presenting its annual Human Rights Report Card indicating where, in our opinion, South Africa has been making progress with regard to human rights and where it has been regressing.
In the uncertain circumstances created by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it is often hard for all of us to find courage, inspiration and – perhaps most importantly – hope.
The FW de Klerk Foundation welcomes the strong reaction of the Zondo-Commission in responding to Jacob Zuma’s statements that he will not obey a summons to appear before the State Capture Inquiry. The Commission (the State Capture Inquiry) is on record as having stated that such an act by the former President showed that he considered himself to be ‘above the law and the Constitution’.
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic South Africa faces a number of critical challenges – including deteriorating race relations, rampant corruption, growing inequality and a failing economy.
Our history mirrors the troubled histories of many other countries in North and South America and Australasia that were ‘discovered’ and settled by Europeans between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The indigenous populations were conquered, some were enslaved and nearly all lost their ancestral lands. As Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux observed: “They made us many promises, but they kept only one: they promised to take our land – and they did.” Some indigenous people died resisting the invaders – but many, many more succumbed to the settlers’ diseases – perhaps as many as 90% of the population of South and Central America.
It is crucial that racist and hurtful non-inclusive behaviour anywhere in South Africa should be addressed with firmly and effectively. Equally critical is a unified and unambiguous condemnation by all South Africans – including government – of racist threats and instigation of violence as such actions have the potential of provoking racial conflict that would cause immense harm to South Africa – we have seen this in Senekal and, more recently, Brackenfell.
