Sequel to Long Walk to Freedom - Revision 1 - Chapter 2 Page 3

The revolutionary changes demanded by the liberation movement, and for which martyrs across the centuries had paid the highest price, would be stifled. The new government would be unable to provide shelter for the people and quality education for their children. Poverty, unemployment, hunger, illiteracy and disease would be rampant. Die Burger criticised this pseudo policy as introducing apartheid through the backdoor. I pointed out to President De Klerk that if their own mouthpiece condemned this idea, he could well imagine what we thought of it. We would reject it out of hand. It was at this point that the President impressed me. He conceded that if our movement would not even consider the idea, he would scrap it. I immediately sent a message to the ANC leadership in Zambia in which I described the President as a man of integrity with whom we could do business. I repeated this statement on countless occasions, here and abroad, after my release from prison. From the ruins of Group Rights there emerged another gimmick, that of Power Sharing. 16