Brave for Leon Wessels to speak frankly about ‘ghosts of apartheid’

At a time of heightened racial tensions and defensiveness in sections of the white community, it is brave for former National Party minister Leon Wessels to speak frankly about the “ghosts of apartheid”.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) did little to bring truth or reconciliation to our divided country, something which Wessels believes can be addressed by open and frank dialogue.

He says he has learned –from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and from Afrikaner history and specifically the hurt of the Anglo-Boer war – “that victims will never forget and perpetrators will do their best to forget”.

Wessels notes that there are many families around South Africa who have been denied closure for some of the acts committed by the servants of apartheid. At the same time, not all security force personnel involved in illegal acts came forward to the TRC.

Now, some of them face prosecution … but have been abandoned by their former political masters. Wessels has vowed to take responsibility with any such person who now finds themselves with a case to answer. That is the right thing to do.

The apartheid buck has to stop with the politicians and, until it does, there won’t be true healing in SA.