Nelson Mandela reached out too far with reconciliation when he took office in 1994, the SABC reported the Human Rights Commission (HRC) as having said yesterday.
Nelson Mandela reached out too far with reconciliation when he took office in 1994, the SABC reported the Human Rights Commission (HRC) as having said yesterday.
HRC chairman Jody Kollapen reportedly told a conference at the University of Western Cape that the former president had unintentionally contributed to divisions in the country.
Kollapen, according to the SABC, said that there had been an undue focus on reconciliation rather than transformation at the dawn of democracy.
Beneficiaries of apartheid thus resisted transformation because they saw it as undermining reconciliation.
They did not expect to make a contribution to the country's growth, the broadcaster reported Kollapen as saying.
He said the country was now grappling to find a balance between the fears of whites and the expectations of blacks, the SABC reported. - Sapa