De Klerk’s death is proof that we are a society yet to heal

After the death of former president FW de Klerk, the reaction of the nation was nothing short of the sentiment of people of our land.

De Klerk trended on social media for all the wrong reasons and, if anything, the sentiments shared show that we are a society that is yet to heal from the hurts of apartheid.

While we may strive to teach nonracialism, we should be honest and admit that there are pockets of our society that are scarred by the past.

When we are ready to admit it, people are more than angry. They may also be hurting and scarred – and this is the lesson De Klerk’s death taught me.

The anger after his death comes because of years of silent denials of being an active participant in the cruelties of the government he was leading.

Many understood that he was party to decisions that put those opposed to apartheid in exile or to suffer unnatural deaths.

The refusal of others to celebrate him is in its way justified. While on the other hand, his idea of relinquishing power did allow for a more peaceful transition to democracy and avert a civil war.

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While, for some, his apology that was made public after his death for the past atrocities is appreciated, it comes too late.

We must understand that reconciliation is far greater than the idea that we must simply say “I am sorry” to bridge the parts of a broken society that we have made it too taboo to discuss.

While we should be understanding that a family, circle of friends and colleagues are in mourning; to respect the dead should remain unwavering in that those who mourn him had a personal relationship with him; may this be the lesson we all needed.

In the Band-Aid approach over a scarred nation, festering wounds are the result of inflammation accompanied by infection of its past and subsequent (in)decisions to correct holistically. We are a nation likened to an abscess, the soft tissues of the extremities to be eliminated with surgery.

De Klerk’s death was to many like something in the operating room of our unresolved past.

Maybe this experience bring forgiveness and healing for the past