Cape Town -
Former president FW de Klerk says he’s not letting the controversy over renaming a Cape Town road in his name get to him.
“I don’t allow it to get under my skin,” he said on Tuesday.
And former president Kgalema Motlanthe and IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi came out in support of the street renaming at a conference on 25 years of nation building.
“If my views were canvassed, I would have expressed support for the renaming of the street after FW de Klerk,” Motlanthe said, adding that struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada did “the right thing” in voicing his support.
In a Daily Maverick opinion article earlier this week, Kathrada said while he often disagreed with De Klerk, “had it not been for Mr de Klerk’s bold steps, we would perhaps have spent another decade or more in struggle, which could have left South Africa a wasteland”.
Reconciliation was a continuing process, wrote Kathrada.
“It nevertheless is something that we must strive for daily. If a street renaming makes a contribution in that regard, then it should be supported. In the same vein, when a street or town needs to have a name change and serves to make us a more cohesive society, we should support it,” he said in the article.
A furore has broke out over the renaming of Cape Town’s Table Bay Boulevard highway after De Klerk, but the Cape Town council decision is deemed a fait accompli after it was adopted following a controversial change of venue.
Buthelezi described the public vocal criticism as “shameful”, saying De Klerk should be so honoured. It was necessary to act as guardians of the truth and advise the younger generation to read the records.
“Neither Mr de Klerk nor I are strangers to propaganda,” Buthelezi said.
Under scrutiny at the FW de Klerk Foundation conference came recent comments by Western Cape Cosatu secretary and ANC councillor, Tony Ehrenreich.
“The phase of reconciliation that brought together fair-minded white and black people is over. We are now engaged in a struggle for economic and social justice,” Ehrenreich said.
Motlanthe said it was necessary for Ehrenreich to have to space to express himself, but there was a duty also not “to be alarmed” by, or over-invest in, pronouncements. If they were wrong, they needed to be corrected, he said.