Kriel condemned for defence of apartheid

AfriForum chief executive Kallie Kriel’s controversial statement that apartheid was not a crime against humanity has sparked widespread anger and condemnation, notes a report in The Mercury. In an interview with 702 Radio talk show host Eusebius McKaiser, Kriel said it was not fair to equate crimes against humanity with apartheid, as ‘there was not a mass killing of people’. Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, accused Kriel of seeking to dilute damages, which were beyond just murders, that the apartheid government had caused to the black population. Kriel, during the radio interview, said according to his records only 700 people were killed by the apartheid government security forces. ‘His statement is an attempt to rewrite and revise history,’ Ntsebeza said. ‘It is the same kind of thing that is dangerous because the Nazis, before they eliminated 6m Jewish people, started by denying the fact that the Jews had a right to existence.’ Ntsebeza said the UN Security Council had declared the apartheid system a crime against humanity not only because of murders that were committed by the regime. ‘Apartheid was a system where people died of malnutrition. Under apartheid, children, for years and years, never reached the age of five because of malnutrition.' Kriel reportedly said last week he recognised that apartheid abused and infringed human rights. ‘But the problem is that people compare it with Hitler killing millions of people in gas chambers. ‘But apartheid did not go to that extent. The crime against humanity is when you take a decision to kill all people, and that is how I see it,’ Kriel is quoted as saying.

Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)