JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress has condemned the statement by the FW de Klerk Foundation "denying that apartheid was a crime against humanity as a blatant whitewash".

"Mr FW De Klerk’s assertion in the interview, 25 years into our democracy, which denies that apartheid was a crime against humanity, flies in the face of our commitments to reconciliation and nation-building," ANC spokesman Pule Mabe said in a statement on Sunday.

"The ANC calls on Mr De Klerk and his foundation not to undermine the compact that forms the foundation of our democracy, which is that we deal with the past through institutional mechanisms and the rule of law," he said.

The decision and the motivation by first the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) and then "the whole world through the United Nations" to declare apartheid a crime against humanity had been well documented. The foundation, instead of "continuing to plead blind ignorance", would do well to research this history.

The ANC would not abandon the project of nation-building. Despite these deeply ill-advised statements by the foundation, the ANC would not be derailed from the project of continuing to rebuild the nation from the ashes of apartheid and its legacies of poverty, unemployment, and inequality, Mabe said.