Image: Twitter@PresidencyPresident Cyril Ramaphosa is pictured with FW De Klerk’s widow Elita De Klerk at the state memorial service of the FW De Klerk in Cape Town on 12 December 2021.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the people of South Africa to allow the last apartheid-era president, FW de Klerk, to rest in peace.
[PHOTOS]: State Memorial Service for former Deputy President Mr FW de Klerk pic.twitter.com/sEcvZoBQPW
— Presidency | South Africa
(@PresidencyZA) December 12, 2021
He acknowledged the role De Klerk played in the ending of the apartheid era and the crafting of the constitution.
Ramaphosa was given a standing ovation after his eulogy.
“Many wondered why we want to have a memorial at a state level for FW de Klerk and we said we will have it because he is one person who played an important role in the evolution of our new democracy whether we like it or not. FW de Klerk was born of the African soil and it is to the African soil that he has now returned. I would like to call upon all of us whether we agreed with him or not to release him so that he can be at peace. Thank you,” says Ramaphosa.
The anger cannot be ignored
Ramaphosa says the place that FW de Klerk held during the apartheid era and the anger that goes with it cannot be ignored.
“We can neither ignore nor must we ever seek to dismiss, the anger, the pain and the disappointment of those who recall the place FW de Klerk occupied in the hierarchy of an oppressive state. We must never forget the injustices of the past. We can never forget the humiliation, the degradation and the inhumanity. Nor must we ever forget the responsibility that we each bear to consign such suffering and injustice to the past.”
SABC news