'It's right up our street'

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe yesterday backed Cape Town's decision to rename Table Bay Boulevard after former president FW de Klerk.

He joined Rivonia treason trialist Ahmed Kathrada, former finance minister Trevor Manuel and other ANC luminaries in opposing Tony Ehrenreich, ANC leader in the city council, on the matter.

At an event in Sea Point yesterday to commemorate De Klerk's famous February 2 1990 speech signalling the end of apartheid, Motlanthe said he disagreed with Ehrenreich and would tell him so when next he saw him.

"It is sometimes easy to elevate statements by individuals to party policy.

"Sometimes individuals make incorrect pronouncements. One has to distinguish between the aberrations of individuals on the one hand and the policy directives of the party on the other.

"But Tony Ehrenreich must not be censored. He must be able to say what he thinks, otherwise we won't know what he believes.

"All the same, we should not invest more currency in his comments than they deserve.

"I support the naming of the street in his honour. Ahmed Kathrada is right.

"I will not repudiate Tony, but I will tell him what my views are when I see him next."

Former British ambassador to South Africa Lord Renwick pointed out that it was De Klerk who abolished the apartheid laws, including its legislative mainstay, the Population Registration Act.

Businessman Johann Rupert reminded the audience that De Klerk's decision to end apartheid was a moral rather than a political one and revealed that the former president had shared his plans with him just months before the announcement.

De Klerk said at the event that his speech was not the result of a "Damascene conversion", or because of any international or domestic pressure.

"We could have held out for decades more and thousands of our children could have died. But I realised the old system was morally indefensible.

"Conscience, not pragmatism, dictated my speech," he said.