Willem Botha

The Afrikaner's Emancipation: Freeing South Africans from Their Apartheid Mindset Willem Botha

President Mandela's stand in negotiations, before, during and after imprisonment was attainment of universal democratic rights for all citizens in South Africa. His counterpart, President F W de Klerk's condition was protection of minority rights, a position he knew could not be sustained, but he did persuade whites to support it until he in the end capitulated and they also. The result was a peaceful transition to black majority rule, but a great number of Afrikaners accepted the handing over of power without rejecting their apartheid ideology. The Afrikaner's Apartheid Mindset was based on an attitude of superiority and a false belief that apartheid was scripturally justified. Although most Christian churches rejected apartheid as sin, the biggest Afrikaans Protestant Church, the Dutch Reformed Church only did so in 1986. Many Afrikaner Christians still have not personally accepted this truth, thus binding themselves to unfinished reconciliation. Through reconciliation the Afrikaners need to make amends for a century of injustice against blacks whom they refused parliamentary representation. On the other hand, in the previous century of injustice before the Anglo Boer War 1899, British imperialism sought to end the Afrikaners' independence. Black economic empowerment, a means of compensation or redress, may eventually benefit all parties in the new era, instead of being a cause of frustration and complaint.