Former South African President FW de Klerk has died at the age of 85.
Written byTimes Magazine
Key Sentence:
- FW de Klerk, the former president of SA also the last white person to lead the country, has died at 85.
- Mr de Klerk, a key figure in the transition to democracy, was diagnosed with cancer that year.
He was head of state. In 1990, he declared the release of Nelson Mandela, resulting in a historic election that brought the anti-apartheid leader to power.
Mr de Klerk release the Nobel Peace Prize Mr. Mandela for helping in the negotiations to end apartheid. But his legacy divides views across South Africa.
The former president of the FW de Klerk Foundation on Thursday said he died peacefully at his Cape Town home after battling mesothelioma cancer. The foundation announced the diagnosis - cancer affecting the lining of the lungs - in June.
The statement said that De Klerk survived his wife Elita, his children Ian and Susan, and his grandchildren. The end of apartheid. The former president was born in Johannesburg in March 1936 to a group of politicians from the African National Party.
He worked while a lawyer and held several ministerial posts before taking over from PW Botha as chairman of the National Party in February 1989 and becoming president a few months later. In a speech of parliament the following year, he announced that he would lift a ban on parties attended by Mandela's African National Congress (ANC).
He also announced that he would release Mandela from prison in 27 years.
His actions helped end the apartheid era in South Africa, and he became one of the country's two vice presidents after the 1994 multi-party elections, in which Mandela became president. In 1997 he withdrew from politics and said: "I resign because I believe that this is in the best interests from the party and the country."
"Unequal Inheritance"
Although the relationship between Mr. de Klerk and Mr. Mandela often broke up over bitter disagreements, the new president described his successor as a man of high integrityIn a statement Thursday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said that Mr. de Klerk "will forever be associated with Nelson Mandela in the annals of South Africa."
"De Klerk's legacy is great. Unfortunately, it's also uneven about what South Africans have to reckon with today," the statement said.
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