Former President FW de Klerk: South Africa is NOT a democracy

Date Posted: Monday 22-Oct-2007

Oct 22 2007, Telegraaf newspaper, ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands.

Said ex-Pres. De Klerk to the Dutch journalist: "South Africa is not a democracy either - in a living democracy one never knows in advance which party has won."

He made the comment at a gala fund-raiser in Rotterdam for the charity KidsRights on Saturday-night, of which he is the patron.

KidsRights raises funds to help Aids orphans worldwide, including in South Africa. De Klerk is a patron of the charity.

The evening's fund-raising auction among the Dutch elite was interrupted so that the overjoyed former SA president could watch the live-TV celebratory scenes after the Springbok rugby team's phenomenal victory over England that night.

De Klerk was actually talking about the new democratic movement which has just been launched by former Russian president Michael Gorbatsjov when he made the comment about South Africa.

He was quoted as saying: "Russia needs a living democracy, and that's a democracy in which one does not know in advance which party is going to win. Such a (living) democracy also does not exist in South Africa,' he said.

His comments were quoted in the popular Stan Huygens column on page 4 of De Telegraaf newspaper on 22 October.

link to page:
http://telegraaf-i.telegraaf.nl/daily/2007/10/22/TE/TE_2S_20071022_4/pagina.php

The evening's auction -- attended by the creme de la creme of the wealthiest Dutch captains of industry and trade -- raised a whopping one-million Euros in just a few hours of bidding.

"We can do so much with this money,' said jubilant KidsRights' founder Marc Dullaert, Dutch tv-producer and CEO of D&D Media Groups.

. "Every Euro is worth three times as much in South Africa. And this money will go 100% 'to support the Aids-orphans in South Africa -- no creaming off the top for expenses such as other charities are doing,' he said.

"Some of our other sponsors actually pay all the running costs for KidsRights so that 100% of our donations go directly to the kids.'

The Dutch-based KidsRights -- not to be confused with the discredited ChildRight group in SA -- also maintains a very open information policy, which is required by Dutch charity foundations.

Give no more money to ChildRight warns the Dutch Central Fundraising Bureau:
http://weeswaakzaam.punt.nl/index.php?r=1&id=410402&tbl_archief=0

Their 2006 statement by their accountant shows that many Dutch artists also donated their talents with free concerts. One of the charities supported is Nkosi's Haven, run by Gail Johnson -- whose highly-publicised adoption of the Aids-infected child Nkosi even drew the ire of president Thabo Mbeki.

Nkosi was near-death when Gail adopted him legally because his AIDS-infected mom could not care for him. The bright youngster lived a happy life on antiretrovirals until the age of 12 -- and his personality shone brightly at his frequent public appearances.

The little boy also famously accosted president Mbeki at a highly-publicised international conference about his anti-AIDS policies, clearly angering Mbeki.

link:
http://www.nkosishaven.co.za/

Nkosi Johnson link

http://www.kidsrights.info/indexfull2_home.php?action=&lang=en&id=723&category=1585

2006 Annual Statement of KidsRights charity:
http://www.kidsrights.info/doc/StichtingKidsrightsDef.jaarrekening2006.pdf
Source URL: http://telegraaf-i.telegraaf.nl/daily/2007/10/22/TE/TE_2S_20071022_4/pagina.php