FW: Non-blacks second class in SA

LONDON – South Africa’s last apartheid-era president, FW de Klerk, said that non-blacks in the country feel like ‘second-class’ citizens in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

“The implementation of affirmative action has led to a substantial percentage of not only Afrikaners, but of all whites and coloureds and Indians feeling that their groups are being reduced to a sort of second-class citizenship,” he told the paper. De Klerk, credited alongside Nelson Mandela with managing a peaceful transition to democracy in the early 1990s, also said that, on one level, crime in South Africa was ‘out of control’.His comments came despite current President Thabo Mbeki’s insistence that most South Africans do not believe it is.”If the definition is that we have fallen into a state of anarchy, then crime isn’t out of control,” said De Klerk.”If the definition is that it’s extremely serious and that the rate at which violent crime is committed in South Africa is unacceptable, then it is out of control.”Part of the problem in dealing with crime lays in affirmative action measures, which have led to the loss of experienced staff in the police, prosecution service and elsewhere, he said.”In this drive of racially-based affirmative action, the country lost that experience and expertise,” he added.De Klerk, 70, stressed that the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa was based on a “non-racial state”.He added that affirmative action would be unconstitutional if it became “institutional racial discrimination” and that this stage had been reached in some municipalities and state departments.But Mbeki was committed to tackling crime, De Klerk said, adding he was convinced that a ‘relatively moderate’ figure would succeed him in elections in 2009.Nampa-SapaDe Klerk, credited alongside Nelson Mandela with managing a peaceful transition to democracy in the early 1990s, also said that, on one level, crime in South Africa was ‘out of control’.His comments came despite current President Thabo Mbeki’s insistence that most South Africans do not believe it is.”If the definition is that we have fallen into a state of anarchy, then crime isn’t out of control,” said De Klerk.”If the definition is that it’s extremely serious and that the rate at which violent crime is committed in South Africa is unacceptable, then it is out of control.”Part of the problem in dealing with crime lays in affirmative action measures, which have led to the loss of experienced staff in the police, prosecution service and elsewhere, he said.”In this drive of racially-based affirmative action, the country lost that experience and expertise,” he added.De Klerk, 70, stressed that the constitution in post-apartheid South Africa was based on a “non-racial state”.He added that affirmative action would be unconstitutional if it became “institutional racial discrimination” and that this stage had been reached in some municipalities and state departments.But Mbeki was committed to tackling crime, De Klerk said, adding he was convinced that a ‘relatively moderate’ figure would succeed him in elections in 2009.Nampa-Sapa