LETTER: No thanks to Verwoerd

Hans Pienaar has succeeded in producing a very short dramatical piece ("Verwoerd is Not Turning in His Grave Over the Way SA Has Turned Out", March 27).

The main actor, Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (he of apartheid notoriety and acclaim) is used as the matrix against which post-1994 governments and its policies are evaluated. The other bit players are apartheid apologists, Fidel Castro, “many black intellectuals and writers of a certain age”, homeland and traditional leaders, AfriForum and the odd ANC leader. Even capitalists and women get a mention.

In a nutshell, Pienaar's hypotheses and main storyline in this mini-drama is that the legacy of apartheid and in particular many of its pernicious consequences are still around.

However, in a curious twist in the story, he writes that not all was bad way back then. Take, for instance, the ANC's language policies and its educational system. Surely it was better then than today? 

But wait, the plot thickens. He even suggests that the new “black bourgeois” have benefited from the architecture of homeland policies. The sub-plot being that the conniving villain in the story, Hendrik, has inadvertently produced tin-pot dictators in the old homelands and a major headache for our current crop of leaders.

In his piece, Pienaar invokes the ghost of Verwoerd and concludes that his remains will not be turning in his grave, thus quite happy with the way things have turned out. Thus ends the mini-drama. But does it? 

Frankly, I don't think this was one of Pienaar's finest productions. It's akin to using Adolf Hitler as the counterbalance to Angela Merkel's Germany and concluding that the old mustache-man is laughing in his grave.

I find it utterly objectionable that Verwoerd should have any relevance and given credit for anything. Period. He should be relegated to the dustbin of history and hopefully, his memory will fade in time.

Charl Adams
Century City