Quote

Now, of course, we know there has been an end to apartheid in South Africa, but what excited me was seeing it in the context of history.

I will never regret not denouncing apartheid.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it - oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

I've never doubted that apartheid - because it was of itself fundamentally, intrinsically evil - was going to bite the dust eventually.

I played an integral part in helpings formulating that new vision... that we must abandon apartheid and accept one united South Africa with equal rights for all, with all forms of discrimination to be scrapped from the statute book.

One can't erase the tremendous burden of apartheid in 10 years, 20 years, I believe, even 30 years.

Everybody now admits that apartheid was wrong, and all I did was tell the people who wanted to know where I come from how we lived in South Africa. I just told the world the truth. And if my truth then becomes political, I can't do anything about that.

Abhorrence of apartheid is a moral attitude, not a policy.

I have made the most profound apology in front of the Truth Commission and on other occasions about the injustices which were wrought by apartheid.

It must not be forgotten in fairness to the National Government that apartheid is not just a policy of oppression but an attempt - in my opinion an attempt doomed to failure - to find an alternative to a policy of racial integration which is fair to both white and black.