Former SA president calls for dialogue to combat racism

Former South African President Frederik de Klerk on Friday stressed the urgent need to combat racism in the country through dialogue.

While launching the FW de Klerk Foundation's Centre for Unity in Diversity in Johannesburg, De Klerk said the National Development Programme (NDP) has identified cultural diversity as a vital tool for human development.

He said that if the NDP is handled well it can lead to greater cultural diversity and enrich people's lives. However, if it is mismanaged it can quickly become one of the greatest sources of instability in the country, he said.

The answer is to respect the diversity and build unity through common bonds of humanity, De Klerk said.

He said the threat to the global peace in the 21st century is not conflict between countries but an inability to manage ethnic, cultural and religious relationships within states.

"It should be a top priority call for a new dialogue between South Africans from all our communities to promote positive relations between them. We need to return to the spirit of reconciliation, compromise and goodwill that characterised the first years in the New South Africa," he said.

De Klerk called on all South Africans to condemn racism wherever it shows its ugly head, oppose negative stereotypes and hold those who incite race violence to account. Endit