Pragmatist dismantled apartheid
FW de Klerk served as South Africa’s last white president, oversaw the end of apartheid and received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 jointly with his successor Nelson Mandela. De Klerk may have had little choice but to ensure the transition of power but was at least astute enough to recognise it was inevitable, and showed skill and courage to ensure it happened.
A conservative liberal from an influential Afrikaner family, he stunned Parliament on February 2, 1990 when five months into his presidency, he vowed to free Mandela, leader of the African National Congress who had languished in jail for 27 years. Nine days later Mandela walked free.
As South Africa’s head of state between 1989 and 1994, De Klerk also dismantled the country’s nuclear weapons programme.
His legacy remains divisive, with his detractors blaming him for failing to stem violence against black South Africans and anti-apartheid activists while he was in power.
Last year he became embroiled in a row after “not fully agreeing” that apartheid should be considrun ered a “crime against humanity” although a prerecorded posthumous video of him apologising for the “pain” the racist system caused has since been released.
Frederik Willem de Klerk was born in Johannesburg, the son of National Party politician Johannes “Jan” de Klerk and Hendrina Cornelia Coetzer.
He was 12 when the National Party swept to power and implemented racial segregation based on white supremacy. His brother, Willem “Wimpie” de Klerk, was more liberal and later founded the Democratic Party, now Democratic Alliance, that opposed apartheid.
FW de Klerk graduated in law from Potchefstroom University and founded a successful legal practice in Vereeniging in the Gauteng Province that ran for 10 years.
The National Party persuaded him to run as its Vereeniging candidate and he was elected to lower house in November 1972.
He held ministerial posts in social welfare and pensions, post and telecommunications, and education, enforcing policies that appeared to strengthen apartheid. But he had a growing unease about PW Botha’s rule as international outrage against apartheid grew. After replacing Botha, he began secret meetings with Mandela before his momentous speech.
He died at home in Fresnaye of mesothelioma cancer.
He is survived by his second wife Elita Georgiades, and his children Jan and Susan by his first marriage.