F. W. de Klerk

Biography

Frederik Willem de Klerk was born on March 18, 1936, in Johannesburg, South Africa, into a well-known Afrikaner family closely connected to the National Party. His father, Jan de Klerk, was a cabinet minister and Senate president, giving Frederik firsthand insight into South African politics. He studied law at Potchefstroom University, now part of North-West University, and worked as an attorney before fully entering politics. He also studied at Goodenough College. Joining the National Party was a natural step given his family background, and he was elected to parliament in 1972, steadily climbing through the government ranks.

Under Prime Ministers John Vorster and P. W. Botha, de Klerk held various cabinet roles in mines, internal affairs, and national education, where he was a staunch supporter of apartheid, the system of racial segregation. Few expected he would later help end apartheid. When Botha resigned from party leadership in February 1989 after a stroke, de Klerk took over and was later elected State President after general elections that year.

As president, de Klerk quickly moved to dismantle apartheid laws. On February 2, 1990, he announced the unbanning of the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, the South African Communist Party, and other banned groups. Nine days later, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years, a release de Klerk personally approved. De Klerk then negotiated with Mandela and other leaders through a formal multi-party forum, leading to the country's democratic transition. South Africa held its first fully democratic elections in April 1994, electing Mandela as president.

De Klerk served as one of two deputy presidents under Mandela from 1994 to 1996, representing the National Party in the Government of National Unity before withdrawing the party from the coalition. He led the National Party until 1997 when he retired from politics. In 1993, he and Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid and create a multiracial democracy. De Klerk also won the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in 1991, the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 1992, and the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, among other honors, such as the Gold Order of Mapungubwe in 2002 and honorary doctorates from Haifa University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

De Klerk was married twice. His first wife, Marike de Klerk, was murdered in her Cape Town apartment in 2001. He later married Elita Georgiades. In his later years, he was a public figure through the F. W. de Klerk Foundation but faced ongoing criticism for his sometimes conflicting statements about apartheid's recognition as a crime against humanity. He died in Cape Town on November 11, 2021, after being diagnosed with mesothelioma.