I don't know what was going on in the mind of AfriForum's CEO Kallie Kriel when he said apartheid was not a crime against humanity. I didn't know he could be this insensitive.

The apartheid government broke all rules in pursuit of those it considered terrorists. State assassins broke sovereignty rules. Our neighbouring countries, like Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Namibia, know what those assassins were capable of first hand. Ruth First was killed in Mozambique, where she probably felt she was safe. Alas, she wasn't. The apartheid government also destabilised countries like Angola.

Kriel didn't only insult those countries but the families of those whose loved ones were hanged. He insulted families of those who died while being tortured. He insulted the families of those whose loved ones have still not been found to this day.

He insulted people like the community of Boipatong, whose family members were killed by the systematic fanning of black-on-black violence. Transkei was given so-called independence on October 26 1976 but that didn't stop the National Party government from doing as it liked in the former homeland.

SA security forces were involved in the murder of student activist Bathandwa Ndondo. FW de Klerk's government went as far as undermining democratic negotiations by killing the Mpendulo kids in Mthatha. They were negotiating in bad faith.

Kriel is mistaken if he thinks people who were killed in townships weren't killed by the apartheid government. Next thing he will do is to disown askaris who murdered their former comrades. Askaris were state assassins just as much as the security forces.

There's no way the apartheid government killed a lousy 600 people.

Richardson Mzaidume

Pimville