ANC Youth League Leader Julius Malema is a lightning rod for controversy. But I fail to see how his most recent remarks, in which he asserted that former President FW de Klerk is “not a hero” and was a “product of apartheid,” are worthy of disapproval, never mind punishment. The truth is usually a good defense.
De Klerk earned great mileage from his decision to release Nelson Mandela and to help bring an end to Apartheid, including what I think was a wrongheaded decision on the part of the Nobel Peace Prize committee to give de Klerk that honor alongside Mandela. But even as he did so he oversaw a state security apparatus that did all that it could to hang on to white power. De Klerk was not hero, and he was a product of apartheid. That he finally did the right thing, and even then, only reluctantly, is hardly grounds for beatification.