Who is AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel?

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel‚ who said on Monday he did not think apartheid was a crime against humanity‚ has been at the helm of the rights group since its formation 12 years ago.

His comments‚ uttered during a radio show on Monday‚ have elicited strong reaction from social media.

Before the formation of AfriForum‚ from 1999 Kriel was the head of marketing and member benefits at its sister organisation trade union Solidarity. Earlier he was a teacher at Centurion High School for three years.

Solidarity and AfriForum are both part of the Solidarity Movement.

A Wikipedia entry page states that he obtained a BA degree at the University of Pretoria in 1990 and a master’s degree in political geography at the same institution in 1996.

He was also a member of the Dinokeng Scenario team‚ which came together in 2010 to take stock of where the country was and to consider possible futures for South Africa.

Kriel’s views seem not to understand the debilitating effect that apartheid had on non-white South Africans.

During an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in 2012‚ the last apartheid state president FW de Klerk gave an reserved answer to a question of whether he had taken responsibility for what his party did.

De Klerk replied that he had made the most profound apology in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about the injustices wrought by apartheid.

“What I haven’t apologised for is the original concept of seeking to bring justice to all South Africans through the concept of nation states‚ but in South Africa it failed.

“And by the end of the 70s we had to realise and accept and admit to ourselves that it had failed and that is when fundamental reforms started. But I have made a profound apology for the injustices caused by apartheid.”