Print
this page
Email
this page Stories
Former apartheid minister washes official's feet 'as Jesus would'
Cape Town, 4 September -Seven years ago, the man who now heads the South African presidential office, the Rev. Frank Chikane, gave only lukewarm acceptance to an amnesty granted to apartheid's last law minister, Adriaan Vlok, and a former secret police commander, for the 1988 bombing of the headquarters of the South African Council of Churches (SACC).
But he appeared much more enthusiastic in describing as genuine the action of Vlok in coming to the presidential office on 1 August, towel in hand, to wash the feet of Chikane, who was SACC general secretary at the time of the bombing. The details of Vlok's action were released – as Vlok and Chikane explained in a joint statement - because the penance was "so deep" that it could not be kept secret.
Chikane said Vlok came to his office in Pretoria and, quoting the Bible, said he had "sinned against the Lord and against you, please forgive me". He apologised for apartheid atrocities.
In 1999 Chikane described the bombing of the SACC's Johannesburg offices, in which officers of the apartheid National Party had once strenuously denied involvement, as "an abominable action in defence of a crime against humanity and heresy".
However, Chikane had accepted the amnesty granted that year by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "as part of efforts to bring about peace and reconciliation among all South Africans".
But after Vlok turned up at Chikane's office in August, President Thabo Mbeki, not known to hold religious views, was quoted describing it as the gesture of a committed Christian "who said that if Jesus Christ could do it, he could also".
Chikane said Vlok insisted he was acting alone because he believed he had set a poor example throughout his life. Chikane noted that Vlok said he had previously been driven by the belief that some in South Africa "were superior to human beings of another race and fellow citizens".
Vlok told South Africa's public broadcaster on 2 September that when his first wife died in 1994 - shortly after the advent of democracy - "from that moment the Lord changed me to get near to him." Asked why he had not included other police atrocities in an apology list, he said he personally had not known about all of them.
Former President F.W. de Klerk, whom Vlok served, said he believed his ex-colleague's penance had been sincere, and it was a pity the gesture had been rejected by some citizens.
Article from: Ecumenical News International by Donwald Pressly
Top
