In the political reality of our world, justice has never been equal. It bends, it selects, and it protects those who benefit from its fragility. Frankly speaking, there has never been anything called “justice” for the Black man or the South African under apartheid.
If true justice existed, F.W. de Klerk, former president of South Africa during the apartheid era, should have faced trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the crimes committed under his leadership, including the killing of defenseless children.
Like a bird freed from its cage, de Klerk moved on with life, conveniently forgetting the brutal actions, racist philosophies, and oppressive regime he presided over.
Today, he even dares to label Nelson Mandela, a global icon of peace, as a “brutal and unfair” political opponent. He speaks boldly because he knows the European-centered justice system has always favored leaders who carry bloodstains on their hands.
De Klerk never deserved to share the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela. He released Mandela from prison only because the apartheid system was collapsing under global pressure. Yet he claimed Mandela was “not faultless.” That accusation is absurd.
If Mandela was not faultless, what about de Klerk, whose regime murdered schoolchildren in cold blood? Mandela fought for his people’s freedom; they killed Steve Biko, but they could not silence Mandela.
Charles Taylor deserved to face justice for supporting Foday Sankoh and fueling atrocities in Sierra Leone. No one disputes that. However, when we consider the scale of crimes committed by apartheid leaders, decades of torture, massacres, racial segregation, and state-sponsored violence, none of them should have escaped judgment.
Yet every one of them walked away with impunity because they were “white vampires sucking the blood of innocent Black people.” If the situation were reversed, the International Court in The Hague would have lined up every Black leader for trial.
The world cannot pretend that justice is blind. It sees color. It sees power. It sees political alliances. Charles Taylor’s imprisonment cannot be used as proof that the International Court is doing a good job. Partiality rules in The Hague, and history has shown this repeatedly.
If Nazi leaders are still hunted today for the killing of six million Jews, as they should be, then any surviving apartheid leader, and every foreign leader who supported that evil regime, including former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, must also face justice.
Only then will the world believe that the International Court in The Hague is truly committed to fairness. Justice must not be selective. Justice must not be racial. Justice must not protect one group while punishing another.
Until the crimes of apartheid are treated with the same seriousness as other crimes against humanity, the world will continue to witness a justice system that favors the powerful and abandons the oppressed.