They were oppressed, they just didn't know it. And many of them still don't; firstly the Union of South Africa was created less than a decade after they were mistreated in the concentration camps and by the same people who mistreated and imprisoned them (i.e. the British colonial politicians); secondly they were co-opted in this false vision of a macro-state by the Cape Dutch/British, did the Boers ever really want or benefit from the creation of South Africa as a state; thirdly the National Party was behind the de-ruralisation of the Boers, thereby destroying their traditional lifestyle; fourthly the National Party adopted symbols such as the ox wagon as their own, in spite of the fact the Boers trekked away from the British/Afrikaner power structure in the Cape. They also stole the Day of the Vow, did any Cape Dutchmen or Brits fight in the Battle of Blood River? No. If a Boer is waving the old South African flag and singing Die Stem it is a sign he doesn't know his own history. The likes of Theuns Cloete and Robert Van Tonder worked hard to try to show the Boers that the National Party, and any pro-Apartheid offshoots (e.g. the Herstigte Nasionale Party or the KP), did not have their best interests at heart, apparently this work was in vain. Apartheid was just a way of advancing the interests of the Afrikaner elite (btw I am using 'Afrikaner' and 'Cape Dutch' interchangeably here), the system of homelands benefitted the wealthy, predominantly Anglo South African or proper European, mine owners by providing a source of cheap labour in the form of disenfranchised, deliberately impoverished Blacks. In turn the diamond and gold magnates funded the NP and kept them in power, the Boers were just seen as White niggers by the likes of Verwoerd, just a bunch of Whites who could be used to shore up the power of the Apartheid state and consequently the NP.
I think DeKlerk was seen as a right-winger because he came from a staunchly NP, and consequently staunchly pro-Apartheid, family. It could have been that he, no joke intended, was the black sheep of the family and truly did believe in the reform process. We'll probably never know. Maybe Mandela deserves some respect for sticking to his ideals during what was, I'm sure, a Hellish 27 years in prison (although I believe he had a rather charmed life toward the end, with his own cottage on prison grounds IIRC). Other than that, I despise the man, he was a terrorist and still is a terrorist in my eyes.