To deny that apartheid was a crime against humanity is treasonous.

This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa who on Thursday used his response to the State of the Nation Address debate to address the debate around comments made by FW de Klerk and his foundation that apartheid was not a crime against humanity.

“Apartheid was so immoral in its conception and so devastating in its execution that there is no South African living today who is not touched by its legacy,” Ramaphosa said to loud applauds.

“I would even go on to say that to deny this, in my view, is treasonous.”

The former deputy president FW de Klerk came under immense scrutiny following the EFF’s protest, which delayed the Sona, where they argued that De Klerk was an apartheid apologist and shouldn’t be invited to the proceedings of a democratic parliament.It was in reference to a TV interview he did about two weeks prior when he disputed that apartheid was a crime against humanity. De Klerk said during the interview that apartheid was not a genocide and that more people died during so-called black-on-black violence just before 1994 than during apartheid.