By MARCHÉ ARENDS

KROG IS PERHAPS BEST known for her role as media co-ordinator during South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1995. Most notably in her career as a journalist, she wrote of her intimate experiences during this volatile period in her non-fiction book [Country of My Skull]. Subsequently produced as a feature film, the book chronicles Krog’s personal struggles and the emotions experienced in the country during the Commission. Fourteen years on from the TRC, Krog has become a highly-regarded commentator on South African politics and cultural affairs. MARCHÉ ARENDS quizzes her on some of the country’s most recent political developments, and explores the writer’s sense of identity.

Your writing is quite universal. With reference to the fact that you have spent extensive periods of time overseas, how do you view yourself and South Africa?

The basis, tone, theme, accent, background of all my work is deeply South African, especially Afrikaner. I write nothing in English, but write in Afrikaans and then translate. This means that my work, even in English, retains an Afrikaans structure.

How have the political changes in South Africa shaped your identity as a South African?

The political past and the changes form the crux of my work. I have written about what is wrong and I do write now about how identities are shifting, how we have become more of each other, how strange we are and yet how familiar, how we care and don’t care.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, when discussing President Jacob Zuma, remarked if he were in another country, he would be embarrassed to acknowledge that Mr Zuma was his president. Given your connection with the Archbishop during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, do you share any of his sentiments and concerns?

I have said before: I don’t think Mr Zuma is a corrupt man. I think he got caught up in circumstances which he seriously misread and misjudged. Yet I would have hoped that Mr Zuma himself would have refused to taint the position of president until his name had been fully cleared.

In light of your ability to assess South Africa’s political development with a more critical eye, do you think that the ANC has shifted its focus during the 15 years that it has been in government?

Yes, the ANC did. It drastically shifted its focus from the Mandela era to the Mbeki era with its vocabulary of exclusion and race. Now it has quite successfully distanced itself from the Mbeki era and even promises a new kind of ANC that will deliver to the poor.

The South African elections have come and gone. Looking back, do you think that the manifestos promoted by both the current ruling dispensation and opposition parties addressed the issues of people on the ground, many of whom participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

No, I don’t think the parties dealt with sullen, slow, angry civil servants and workers who take their bad moods out on poor people. I didn’t see anybody trying to inspire people to care for those in front of them – terms like self-interest, clients, stakeholders, taxpayers, etc. were used.

Are you optimistic about the future of South Africa?

Yes, always – but it makes me [feel] old.

With several published poetry anthologies, translations, plays and three full-length books to her name, Krog has firmly established herself in the literary world. Her latest publication, There was this Goat, is a collaboration with Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele. The book investigates the seemingly incoherent TRC testimony of Mrs Notrose Konile, mother of one of the ‘Gugulethu Seven’, Zabonke Konile. At a deeper level the book explores the cultural and linguistic barriers which the diverse people of South Africa are yet to overcome.

MARCHÉ ARENDS is a first-year student majoring in Media and Writing. She is a subcom member at THE CAPE TOWN GLOBALIST.