In an interview on eNCA, De Klerk said: “Knowing what I know today I would have made that same speech 30 years ago. It had to be done and it had to be done to bring justice, and it had to be done to avert catastrophe in SA,” said De Klerk.
He said had civil war not been averted, the country would now look like Syria.
“I could not have made that speech if the Berlin wall did not come down with the communist threat, which was more real than people nowadays believe. There was a real threat,” said De Klerk.
There was a fallacy, he said, that he never completely apologised for apartheid.
“That is wrong. I've done that [apologised] many times. Apartheid was wrong. Apartheid was morally unjustifiable. We didn't only say sorry, we took the initiative to rectify the wrongness of apartheid and to bring justice to all in SA.
“I sincerely believe that apartheid left marks which are still visible today and which people still feel, but to blame everything which is wrong in SA today, after 25 years, on apartheid is also not true.”