De Klerk's 'last gasp'
By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — President F.W. de Klerk's decision to defy the directive of the Transitional Executive Council (TEC) and the Independent Electoral Commission that all prisoners be granted the right to vote was "the last gasp of a minority racist government", prisoners' rights campaigner Golden Miles Bhudu told Green Left Weekly.
A proclamation signed by the president was required to change the electoral act to allow all prisoners to vote. De Klerk resisted all attempts by the ANC, the TEC and the IEC to shift him. De Klerk's cabinet decided to defy the TEC/IEC on April 25. Slight changes were approved that marginally increased the number of prisoners eligible to vote.
Bhudu said there were serious doubts about free and fair voting taking place in prisons. Most prison warders were "fascists" who oppose the changes outside the prisons, "so you can imagine what their attitude was to prisoners voting".
The decision proved "de Klerk remains the very same de Klerk of apartheid days. His so-called 'new-born' National Party remains a racist minority party. He knew that his party was not going to get even 5% of prisoners' votes."