South Africa’s last apartheid president FW de Klerk dies
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s last white president FW de Klerk died on Thursday aged 85, having helped steer the nation to democracy while never fully owning up to the horrors of the apartheid past.
He died at home early Thursday after a battle with cancer, his foundation said in a statement.
De Klerk freed Nelson Mandela from prison, unbanned political parties, and later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with the antiapartheid icon.
Yet he never found a place in the democratic South Africa, and became seen as an apologist for the torture and killings committed by the segregationist regime.
His testimony had been demanded in several current cases seeking answers over past atrocities.
But in a surprise move, he tendered an apology – in a posthumous video message.
“I without qualification apologise for the pain and hurt and the indignity and the damage that apartheid has done to black, brown and Indians in South Africa,” he said in the video released by his foundation.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation captured the sentiments of many, saying: “De Klerk’s legacy is a big one. It is also an uneven one, something South Africans are called to reckon with in this moment.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that De Klerk “played a vital role in our transition to democracy.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one of the few foreign leaders to quickly offer condolences, hailed De Klerk’s “steely courage and realism in doing what was manifestly right and leaving South Africa a better country.”