By Kaya 959 Reporter
Former South African President FW de Klerk will not have a state funeral. Instead, his family has announced a private ceremony will take place.
“FW de Klerk’s cremation and funeral will take place on Sunday, 21 November. It will be a private ceremony for family members and will not be open to media,” the family said.
De Klerk, SA’s last Apartheid president, died last week.
His family said he died peacefully at his home in Fresnaye following a struggle with mesothelioma cancer.
De Klerk is survived by his wife Elita, his children Jan and Susan, and his grandchildren.
Since his death, critics have slammed the idea that he could be afforded a state funeral. A State Funeral Category 1 is afforded to the President of the Republic, President-elect and former SA presidents.
De Klerk was 85 years old at the time of his death.
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Tutu Foundation reacts to De Klerk’s death
Despite FW de Klerk’s foundation releasing a video of him apologising to the country, many believe it was “too little, too late”.
The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation says the former president failed to fully reconcile with South Africans.
“It is, however, sad that Mr de Klerk missed the many chances he had to fully reconcile with all South Africans by acknowledging the full extent of the damage caused by apartheid. That damage is with us today. We are in many ways a broken society.
“It is as our founder, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, has said, ‘Mr de Klerk could have gone down in history as a truly great South African statesman, but he eroded his stature and became a small man, lacking magnanimity and generosity of spirit’,” said foundation CEO Piyushi Kotecha.
She added that while De Klerk played a vital role in ending apartheid, he was never able to acknowledge the full extent of apartheid’s evil.
“As late as February 2020, he refused to acknowledge that apartheid was a crime against humanity, despite it being declared such by the United Nations in 1973,” Kotecha said.