GALLERY: Apartheid’s last president F.W. De Klerk dead at 85
F.W. De Klerk was the seventh and last president of apartheid South Africa between 1989 and 1994. He served alongside Thabo Mbeki as the first deputy president of democratic South Africa between 1994 and 1996.
Frederik Willem de Klerk died in the early hours of Thursday morning, 11 November, at his home in Fresnaye, Cape Town. He announced that he had cancer on 18 March 2021.
DE KLERK DIES AT 85
The F.W. De Klerk Foundation announced the passing of the seventh apartheid president on Thursday.
The foundation said he was struggling with mesothelioma cancer. He is survived by his wife Elita, his children Jan and Susan and his grandchildren.
De Klerk was the last president of apartheid South Africa between 15 August 1989 and 10 May 1994.
He unbanned the African National Congress and released Nelson Mandela from Robben Island after 27 years in jail on 2 February 1990.
In 1991, the apartheid regime was ended after 43 years of minority rule.
After South Africa’s first democratic general election, De Klerk served as the 1st deputy president of the country along with Thabo Mbeki under Nelson Mandela between 10 May 1994 and 30 June 1996.
After he vacated the position, he served as leader of the opposition from 1996 until his retirement in 1997.
De Klerk leaves behind a controversial legacy, despite the accolades. Most notably he received the Nobel Peace Prize along with Mandela in 1993 and earned widespread acclaim for ending an unsustainable political regime and overseeing a peaceful transition to democracy.
He was accused of not taking responsibility for the atrocities committed by the apartheid security forces and was also widely slammed for not seeing apartheid as a crime against humanity – he later withdrew the remarks.
Certain sections of the population may even see him as a traitor of his people.
“There were always going to be Afrikaners who would never forgive him for surrendering sovereign Afrikaner power, giving up the Afrikaners’ right to national self-determination,” said Dave Steward, the Chairperson of the FW de Klerk Foundation.
PICTURES
South African passer-by views local newspaper placard bearing “FW unbans ANC” after South African President Frederik de Klerk officially authorized the African National Congress (ANC) party on his first opening of parliament, 02 February 1990, in Cape Town. AFP WALTER DHLADHLA (Photo by WALTER DHLADHLA / AFP) ANC Vice-president Nelson mandela (2nd R) and South Africa’s President F. W. De Klerk (3rd R) stroll together on May 2, 1990 at Groote Schuur during their “talks about talks” to open negotiations to end apratheid. (Photo by Walter DHLADHLA / AFP) A Nationalist Party supporter (L) and an African National Congress supporter hold posters of their respective leader in the township of Mzinoni in the Eastern Transvaal 29 January 1994, while South African President F.W. de Klerk opened a party office for black voters for the 27 April elections. (Photo by PHILIP LITTLETON / AFP) South African deputy President FW de Klerk(L) casts his vote for the second time in Pretoria 01 Nov in the first democratic local government elections as his wife Merke(R) looks on. De Klerk also voted earlier in the day in Hermanus in the Cape Province where he has his holiday home. AFP PHOTO (Photo by PHILIP LITTLETON / AFP) CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – May 1996: The signing of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in May 1996 ushered in a new era of constitutional democracy two years after the country’s historic first democratic election and the installation of President Nelson Mandela. In this photograph of members of the Constitutional Assembly, party leaders in the front row include Roelf Meyer, Frene Ginwala, FW De Klerk, Cyril Ramaphosa, Nelson Mandela, Leon Wessels and Thabo Mbeki. (Photo by Gallo Images/Oryx Media Archive) (l-r) Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former South African President Nelson Mandela, former South African President F W de Klerk and Dr Albertina Luthuli, daughter of the late Albert Luthuli sign a declaration on the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town 14 December 2003 during the official announcement of the Nobel Peace Project. An area of the V & A waterfront has been named Nobel Square in honour of South Africa’s four Nobel Peace Prize Laureates on which four sculptures will be erected and unveiled on 16 December 2004. AFP PHOTO/STRINGER (Photo by AFP) 22 May 2007. South Africa. Pretoria. President Thabo Mbeki meets with former president, FW de Klerk, and his wife Elita at Mbeki’s house. CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – 18 August 2009: President Jacob Zuma meeting former president FW de Klerk at Tuynhuys in Cape Town. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sunday Times/Esa Alexander) Frederik Willem de Klerk (F.W. de Klerk), the former president who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993, answers questions about his memories of Nelson Mandela, on July 11, 2017, in his office in Cape Town. – De Klerk was the South African president who ordered Mandela’s release from prison. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP)
Additional reporting by AFP.