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The current unrest in Zimbabwe could spill over into South Africa if victims of apartheid do not receive adequate compensation, the Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, warned in Geneva on Wednesday.
“The situation in Zimbabwe shows what could happen if the processes of reparation are not carried out properly,” Ndungane was quoted as saying. The archbishop suggested that reparations should be paid from a fund financed by Switzerland, Germany, Britain and the United States, which profited from loans and business ties to the former apartheid regime.
“Western governments and corporations must acknowledge their culpability in the development and defence of what came to be called apartheid. It is in this way that western governments are liable for reparation,” Ndungane said.
The archbishop was in Switzerland to campaign for a write-off of debts which the South African government inherited from the apartheid regime in 1994.
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