Barely a week after his death, the national furor over how the country should part ways with Die Groot Krokodil continues to grow. Here we are: a country that has miraculously journeyed through the gates of reconciliation, forgiveness and reformation, now being faced with the moving on of people who were instrumental, architects if you like, in the Apartheid regime. With a desire to look forward and continue building our country, we now have to figure out how to say goodbye to a man once known as a pariah.

It has amazed me how, at a time of death, the way we speak of, and describe, the deceased is predominantly laced with positive sentiment that speaks of how beautiful and great the person was. This is right, and I believe it should be done. However, we also need to face up to the less than savoury sides of a person and acknowledge them as we mourn. It seems now, that with the mourning of PW Botha, the country is wrestling with how to express both the sadness, pain and joy of having him move on and the era he represents.

While we would expect some of the sentiment expressed from many parts of the national consciousness, some folk have stepped forward with honouring tributes to the passing of PW Botha. Of significance are the words of ousted Deputy President Jacob Zuma, former President Mandela and President Mbeki - all of whom suffered greatly under the rule of Botha and his predecessors.

Mbeki has said: Botha should be seen as an architect of the rainbow nation.

Zuma has said: Botha "will be one of those South Africans who will always be remembered given the role he played in our history during his time as head of state. He presided over a period when our country was besieged with conflict and bloodshed."

Since these statements, people have warned against a re-writing of Apartheid's history.

This struggle in the narrative pulse of the country reminds me of the debacle around SABC 3's Great South Africans rankings in 2004 where the nation wrestled with the notion of "greatness" and how it applied to people such as Hendrik Verwoerd, the Architect of Apartheid, who ranked higher than Albert Luthuli, South Africa's first Nobel Peace laureate. The show was cancelled in October that year due to the pressure.

It seems that the public in general are wanting to say good riddance to PW and are struggling to integrate alternative views from people who have helped carve out our national narrative post-1994.

My opinion?

It is wonderful that we can have these two threads available to us, and have the freedom to play it out nationally. As someone who remembers very little of PW (except what Wikipedia tells me) I find it discouraging to see how so many people are willing to turn their backs on PW so aggressively. I agree with Mbeki in the view that he was instrumental in crafting the rainbow nation - without his contribution, we would not be the same. I do wish that we can allow him the grace of our national forgiveness ... and fear that we might lose such a gift unless we practise it intentionally in the future.

Image courtesy of Zanaton