16 May 1997
The SACP once more reiterates its whole hearted support for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We call on all south Africans to back the work of the Commission, it is in our common collective interest to do so.
The TRC is a crucial component of building the fabric of a new south Africa, a south Africa in which we shall all be able to fins a home across the boundaries of colour and ideology.
Our whole-hearted support does not mean everything said or done by the TRC and its councillors meets which our unqualified approval. But the difficult task of repairing our country calls for maturity on all sides, not lest from those political parties that were active combatants in the struggle of our past.
For this reason in particular, we roundly condemn the National Party's petulant announcement that will now withdraw from the working with the TRC. The NP must not misplace blame for its moral drubbings these last two days. It is its own past and the present failure of moral nerve by its leader, FW de Klerk, that account for the drubbing - not the view expressed in good faith by the TRC.
Sooner of later the NP and FW de Klerk will have to reconsider their position on the TRC, or face a further decline in their fortunes. From their point of view the sooner they reconsider the better.
Issued: SACP HQ
Jeremy Cronin, Deputy General Secretary