News

Tribute paid to journalist Louw

December 02, 2009 Edition 2

The Freedom Front Plus's Pieter Mulder has paid tribute to former SABC radio executive producer and journalist Chris Louw, who was found dead on his farm near Hartbeespoort Dam in North West.

"The outspoken way in which Chris Louw had struggled with the problems of South Africa resulted in nobody being indifferent to him," Mulder said yesterday.

"In his last news articles, he had, as a former member of the Dakar group, expressed the disillusionment of many South Africans whose high expectations of the new South Africa were not realised."

Louw, 57, was found with a gunshot wound to the head. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.

Louw was known for his controversial open letter to the late Willem de Klerk entitled "Boetman is die bliksem in" (Boetman is angry).

This was followed by a book, Boetman en die Swanesang van die Verligtes (Boetman and the swansong of the liberals).

It became known as the "Boetman debate".

The letter to De Klerk, a National Party opinion-maker and brother of former president FW de Klerk, accused the older generation of Afrikaner leaders of political cowardice and deceit by sending the younger generation to war to defend apartheid.

Louw was part of a group of South Africans who held meetings with the then banned ANC in Dakar, Senegal, in 1987.

He was a journalist for several publications, including the Mail & Guardian, Farmers' Weekly, Vaderland and Oggendblad, and wrote many articles for Beeld newspaper.

He is survived by his wife, son and daughter. - Sapa