Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 1 | F.W. DeKlerk An Interview, page 2

SK: The government of South Africa is currently led by the African National Congress (ANC) which, for many years, saw you as the enemy, although perhaps they wouldn’t be where they are if it wasn’t for your leadership in ending apartheid. Do they now see you as a real player in a new South Africa?

FWDK: There was a time when I think they might have been suspicious that I still had a political agenda, but it’s been accepted now by the powers that be within the governing party that I don’t, and that I am making and can make a contribution. And there is a new openness and a new sense of trust on their part towards me, which really strengthens my hand. I have regular meetings with President Mbeke; President Mandela and I have become quite good friends. We’re doing some things together: as part of this greater dialogue, for instance, a group led by President Mandela’s foundation and a group led by my foundation have already had a two-day get together. And we’re now working towards a more structured agenda for a follow-up meeting, where we are looking at how to stimulate this dialogue at the local level, the city level, the town level so groups within each area can tell us what they feel are the challenges facing us in achieving socioeconomic transformation.

SK: And these are dialogues between blacks and whites?

FWDK: Absolutely.

SK: Between all racial groups?

FWDK: Absolutely. But my team also has blacks on it, and also has people of color on it. So, it is a truly non-racial group from both sides.

SK: With unemployment so high, there is frustration and anger among those in South Africa whose lives are not improving. Many people thought that the end of apartheid would bring a better life. What is the most important thing that you must work on when so many people are disappointed? Is it building the job base? Is it education? Or do you have to work on everything at the same time?

FWDK: I don’t think there’s a quick fix for the vast problem of unemployment that we have. It is not just the result of former policies, and so on. Unemployment is rife in other countries in Africa where they’ve been self-governing for almost 50 years now—it’s a problem of the developing world in general. And South Africa is sort of a hybrid country. It has a first-world dimension, but it has always had a third-world aspect as well. So we’re struggling with the same problems that the rest of the developing world is struggling with.
Our skills base cannot meet the demands of the new economy and the new industrial setup that has developed through the technological revolution of recent years. If you look at Africa, only four percent of African youth gets tertiary education as opposed to nearly sixty percent in developed countries. That disparity tells you immediately why our workers don’t have the skills needed for today’s economy.

In a country like South Africa, it is fundamentally important that we get new fixed investments, that new factories are built. That new sources of revenue are tapped, new mines opened, new jobs created in new businesses. In some ways, we are beginning to see that happening, such as in the motor industry. South Africa has become an impressive exporter of cars to Southeast Asia, Australasia, and other Indian Ocean realms, which has created many jobs. And we’ve had hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment in South Africa. We need to make that happen in other spheres, too.

SK: Some people worry that South Africa could go the route of Zimbabwe, which for many years was doing pretty well as a democracy and where the black and white communities seemed to have a rapprochement. But Zimbabwe has now fallen into disarray; there’s violence and chaos. Can you avoid the same fate?

FWDK: I have no doubt that we will avoid becoming a Zimbabwe. I say that because there is a broad, firm consensus among the overwhelming majority of South Africans—who are moderates—that we will make our constitution work.

SK: In the U.S., we always feel that our first president, George Washington, helped us establish a vibrant democracy because he didn’t want to stay in office too long. It must have been also a positive thing to have Nelson Mandela serve his term and then leave office.

FWDK: I think it was a very good exercise to have a change of presidents after one term. In a sense, I think Mandela is missed, but he’s still doing so much in the field of reconciliation and in working toward socioeconomic transformation that not having him as the president isn’t so hurtful. But the fact that there was a peaceful transition, that a former president could stay involved in the country’s development, is an example to the rest of Africa that presidents needn’t cling to power in order to play a constructive role in their country.

SK: That goes for you as well?

FWDK: Absolutely. I experience it from day to day when I’m in South Africa, where I continue to live and which is the country that I love. The recognition and respect that I get from black South Africans is a great inspiration to me.

SK: You could have walked away after your presidency. What made you say, I’ve got to keep investing in this country?

FWDK: Well, I feel I have a residual responsibility. It would be arrogant to say I started it all, but I was one of the leading figures who promoted the initiatives that led to the creation of a new South Africa—which led to the peaceful transition towards a full and free democracy. But that new South Africa is still like a young, tender plant. It needs nurturing, it needs water, it needs to be trimmed from time to time. And as long as I have the energy and the capacity, I feel that I have a responsibility to do my part—not from the perspective of a member of a political party, but from who I now am, a member of South Africa’s civil society.

Editor's Note: In August 2004, F.W. DeKlerk announced he was withdrawing from the New National Party (NNP), of which he is a member, citing the fact that the NNP's merger with the African National Congress would leave "a gap in South Africa's political spectrum."