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On the 27th of January, Nuus24 ran the following poll and this was the result:
Wat dink jy van FW de Klerk se pogings om vir Afrikaans te stry? (What do you think of FW de Klerk’s efforts to fight for Afrikaans?
• Dis nou te laat vir FW om vir die Afrikaanssprekendes te wil opstaan. (It’s too late now for FW to stand up for Afrikaans people ) 64%
• Hy verdien prys - ten minste probeer iemand vir ons taal veg! (He deserves a prize – at least someone is fighting for us) 31%
• Wie gee om? Mense vat die taalkwessie te ver. (Who cares? People are taking this language issue too far.) 6%
Will you excuse me for a minute while I bang my head against my desk.
I’m going to make a wild leap here and say it would seem that 64% of Nuus24 readers are still angry at FW for “giving the country to the blacks”. Because everyone knows when De Klerk released that evil terrorist Mandela and unbanned the ANC it was the beginning of a slippery slope. Before we knew it there was a referendum and black people got the vote!
I can’t remember much about those days – I was 10-years old and politics wasn’t really at the forefront of my consciousness. But I can remember what people called Mr. De Klerk.
Traitor. Verraaier.
Even then it was easy enough for most people (or so I thought) and a 10-year girl to understand that FW took the necessary steps to lead SA into a democracy, not because he was the voice of freedom and it was his lifelong dream, but mostly because he was smart enough to realise that he couldn’t not.
That was 20 years ago.
And now it would seem that people still think he betrayed us Afrikaners. Seriously? I mean seriously?
I am not arguing that modern SA is a rainbow coloured paradise wrapped up in pretty pink bows. God knows we have our problems, and they are many and varied.
But I do want to ask the 64% of readers who are still pissed at FW - what would you have done?
Would you have kept the pass laws, the forced segregation, the incarceration without trial, the denial of basic human rights? Would you want to live in a permanent 'state of emergency' - a police state with a censored press and a population becoming angrier and more frustrated by the second?
Would you want to live in a country completely isolated by sanctions? With a negative growth rate?
Or would you have wanted to fight a bloody and tragic neverending civil war which would have left this country deeply mired in far greater hatred than we are seeing even now?
If your answer is yes – well... I just don't know.
Maybe you should try and move to Antarctica with Dan Roodt. I hear it’s very white there.
Do you agree with Lili? Tell us your opinion in the box below…
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