Former S. African president blames ruling party of repudiating reconciliation

Former South African president FW de Klerk on Friday accused the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of "repudiating the great tradition of reconciliation and nation-building that was personified by Nelson Mandela".

"It is now a matter of great concern that the local representatives of the ANC have chosen to denigrate the other parties that helped to create our new society," De Klerk said at a ceremony to rename the Table Bay Boulevard after him.

"I have no doubt that he (Mandela) would have been deeply shocked and disappointed by their behavior," De Klerk said, referring to the ANC.

De Klerk said it is essential to counteract "the efforts of some political factions to rewrite history and to create the impression that the new society was created only by the ANC."

De Klerk quoted an ANC leader in the Cape Town City Council as saying "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."

De Klerk said the attitude showed that the ANC "have abandoned the National Development Plan -- a core element of which is the promotion of national unity". When he served as the last apartheid president, De Klerk released Mandela from prison in 1990 and entered into negotiations with him, which led to the end of apartheid in 1994. Endi