Somewhere in February, I decided to track down some bridge news from the primary source.

Having bugged Radiohead’s Yorke unsuccessfully about his bridge career for several years, I moved on from this mission to instead ask others if they played bridge during their life – or if they still played.

The most natural choice was asking Geir Helgemo for a candid interview about life after a doping scandal.

After a few unsuccessful tries to make any kind of even self-imposed deadline for an answer to my questions, I realized that I was going to have to choose a different person instead.

Why not FW de Klerk?

He’s mentioned in several resources as a keen bridge player, but with nothing more than a passing reference, I wondered if he still played.

What could go wrong?

As it turns out, this.

FW de Klerk and Bridge

First, I asked the FW de Klerk Foundation.

Not too long after my query to their website, I received a crisp and fresh response to my inbox.

According to the Foundation’s official response, he still reads the occasional bridge column and used to be an avid player.

I was satisfied with the response: It went online.

FW de Klerk and Bridge

Going through the archives, I found an old and unpublished interview that also hails from the political sphere. An interview with the treasurer of the EFF that had been gathering online dust in a folder in cyberspace.

While we’re on the topic of politics, why not publish this, too?

A few days after I had made these two interviews public, a few things happened in very quick succession.

The first event was the Economic Freedom Fighters, a South African political party, calling for the re-opening of death inquests into apartheid-era freedom fighters and activists – most of which happened under the reign of de Klerk as State President.

The second event was the Economic Freedom Fighters demanding the removal of FW de Klerk during a live parliament sitting. According to the EFF, he was one man who didn’t deserve to be sitting where he was.

The third event was the shocker: The FW de Klerk released an appalling statement questioning if the crimes committed under apartheid (and under FW) qualified as human rights abuse.

According to the de Klerk Foundation’s statement, apartheid crimes didn’t fit the UN definition of crimes against humanity. (And according to an entire world of people, many of whom suffered as a result of these crimes, political parties, journalists and bloggers called BS).

After mounting international pressure from everyone including Archbishop Desmond Tutu through to leading political parties, bloggers, journalist and pretty much everyone with sense, the FW de Klerk Foundation withdrew their statement.

After all of this, do I still care if FW de Klerk plays bridge?

Not as much as I used to.