South Africa’s second-biggest opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), says that FW de Klerk should not be given a state funeral as he led an “evil regime” which enforced racial discrimination in the country until its rule ended in 1994.
To give De Klerk a state funeral would be to “spit in the face” of anti-apartheid heroes who “suffered in his hands, and who had their children murdered”, the EFF said in a statement.
De Klerk died at his home earlier at the age of 85 after losing his battle with cancer.
In another statement, the Fort Calata Foundation said that De Klerk had ordered a security raid in Mthatha city in 1993, which led to five children, among them twins, being killed in their sleep.
He also sat in on meetings of the apartheid regime’s State Security Council, which discussed the “fate” of prominent anti-apartheid activists Fort Calata and Matthew Goniwe in the 1980s, the statement said.
The two were killed in 1985 by the security forces, causing huge anger among black people in South Africa.
Matthew Goniwe (R) and Fort Calata (second from right) were killed by state security forces in 1985
“It is sad that yet another apartheid criminal has died without having accounted for the crimes he perpetrated against our humanity,” the statement added.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier said that De Klerk’s foundation would announce his funeral arrangements.
South African journalist Karyn Maughan has tweeted that this means that De Klerk will not receive a state funeral.
Meanwhile, mourners have been dropping off flowers at De Klerk’s home in Cape Town, as the photo below shows:
