EFF lays hate speech charge against FW de Klerk

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Cape Town - The EFF has again gone after the country’s former president, FW de Klerk, by laying a charge against him over his controversial apartheid remarks. The red berets want De Klerk hauled over the coals for his “hate speech” remarks during an interview with the SABC last month in which he said apartheid was not a crime against humanity. De Klerk made the statement - which he has since withdrawn - while speaking on the role he played in freeing first democratic president Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners at that time. A few days after his remarks, the EFF caused chaos in Parliament during the State of the Nation Address, demanding that De Klerk, who it called a “murderer”, leave the National Assembly. The sitting descended into chaos and the EFF eventually left the house. On Sunday, the party’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, opened the case at Cape Town central police station.

According to a tweet by the party, Dlamini visited the police station at 12 noon and was met and helped by a police officer who took a statement regarding the case.

“EFF Secretary-General @DlaminiMarshall is at the Cape Town Central Police Station opening a case of hate speech against the racist apartheid denialist FW de Klerk,” the party tweeted on Sunday.

Even former president Thabo Mbeki weighed in on the controversial matter, promising to give De Klerk UN documentation that declared apartheid a crime against humanity, after De Klerk had told him he was not aware that the oppressive system had been declared such as far back as 1973.

Mbeki subsequently sent De Klerk the declaration of the UN Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has poured cold water on calls to have De Klerk stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize, which he was awarded jointly with Mandela in 1993.

Approached for comment, Norwegian Nobel Committee Administration and Information Secretary KB Asdal said: “As a matter of principle, the Norwegian Nobel Committee never comment upon what the Nobel Peace Prize laureates may say and do after they have been awarded the prize.”

Attempts to obtain comment from EFF spokespeople Vuyani Pambo and Delisile Ngwenya were unsuccessful as their phones rang unanswered and they did not respond to texts.

The chairman of the board of trustees of the FW de Klerk Foundation, Dave Stewart, said they had taken a decision not to comment on the matter any more.

Political Bureau