Frederik Willem de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk (born
March 18,
1936) was the last white
President of
South Africa, serving from September
1989 to May
1994, and leader of the
National Party (which later became the
New National Party) from February 1989 to September 1997.
De Klerk is best known for ending
apartheid, South Africa's racial segregation policy, and transforming South Africa into a democracy by allowing the country's black majority to have voting rights. Born in
Johannesburg, De Klerk is the son of former Senator Jan de Klerk and a nephew of
J.G. Strijdom (prime minister, 1954-1958).
"F.W." was first elected to the South African
Parliament in 1969 as the member for Vereeniging, and entered the cabinet in 1978. He became
Transvaal provincial National Party leader in 1982. After a long political career and with a very conservative reputation, in
1989 he placed himself at the head of
verligte ("enlightened") forces within the governing party, and led a successful palace coup against then president
P.W. Botha.
His lifting of the ban on the
ANC and other organisations in February
1990 paved the way for the negotiations which led to the end of
Apartheid and white minority rule. On
February 10 of that year, de Klerk also announced that
Nelson Mandela would be released the next day. De Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in
1993 for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.
In April
1994 racially inclusive elections were held for the first time ever. De Klerk ran a largely ceremonial and uncompetitive presidential campaign against Mandela, in which Mandela was soundly elected. He went on to serve for two years as deputy president in
Nelson Mandela's government, but announced his retirement from politics in August 1997 in order to dissociate the National Party from the policies he had once implemented.
Conservative South African opinion was scandalised by his messy divorce (October 1998) from the former Marika Willemse and prompt re-marriage to Elita Georgiades, but the whole country was shocked by the death (December 2001) of his ex-wife of 38 years, apparently at the hands of a young security guard during the course of a robbery.
The name 'de Klerk' is derived from Le Clerc / De Clercq and is of French
Huguenot origin along with a great number of other
Afrikaans surnames.
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De Klerk, Frederik Willem\nDe Klerk, Frederik Willem
