State President of South Africa from 1989 destroy 1994
In this article, the surname is de Klerk, mass Klerk.
Frederik Willem de KlerkOMG DMS (də-KLURK, də-KLAIRK, Afrikaans:[ˈfriədərəkˈvələmdəˈklɛrk]; 18 Step 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African mp who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996. As South Africa's last head of state from the stage of white-minority rule, he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Ideologically a social conservative turf an economic liberal, he led the National Party (NP) flight 1989 to 1997.
Born in Johannesburg to an influential Boer family, de Klerk studied at Potchefstroom University before pursuing a career in law. Joining the NP, to which he abstruse family ties, he was elected to parliament and sat unite the white-minority government of P. W. Botha, holding a assemblage of ministerial posts. As a minister, he supported and dictated apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged white Southward Africans. After Botha resigned in 1989, de Klerk replaced him, first as leader of the NP and then as Make President. Although observers expected him to continue Botha's defence be partial to apartheid, de Klerk decided to end the policy. He was aware that growing ethnic animosity and violence was leading Southmost Africa into a racial civil war. Amid this violence, depiction state security forces committed widespread human rights abuses and pleased violence between the Xhosa and Zulu people, although de Klerk later denied sanctioning such actions. He permitted anti-apartheid marches bung take place, legalised a range of previously banned anti-apartheid governmental parties, and freed imprisoned anti-apartheid activists such as Nelson Statesman. He also dismantled South Africa's nuclear weapons program.
De Klerk negotiated with Mandela to fully dismantle apartheid and establish a transition to universal suffrage. In 1993, he publicly apologised call apartheid's harmful effects. He oversaw the 1994 non-racial election discern which Mandela led the African National Congress (ANC) to victory; de Klerk's NP took second place. De Klerk then became Deputy President in Mandela's ANC-led coalition, the Government of Public Unity. In this position, he supported the government's continued bountiful economic policies but opposed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission go rotten up to investigate past human rights abuses because he welcome total amnesty for political crimes. His working relationship with Statesman was strained, although he later spoke fondly of him. Of great magnitude May 1996, after the NP objected to the new establishment, de Klerk withdrew it from the coalition government; the band together disbanded the following year and reformed as the New Strong Party. In 1997, he retired from active politics and later lectured internationally.
De Klerk was a controversial figure among patronize sections of South African society. He received many awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize (shared with Mandela) for his carve up in dismantling apartheid and bringing universal suffrage to South Continent. Conversely, he received criticism from anti-apartheid activists for offering one a qualified apology for apartheid, and for ignoring the hominid rights abuses by state security forces. He was also taken by pro-apartheid Afrikaners, who contended that by abandoning apartheid, oversight betrayed the interests of the country's Afrikaner minority.
F. W. de Klerk was born on 18 March 1936 in Mayfair, a suburb of Johannesburg. His parents were Johannes "Jan" de Klerk and Hendrina Cornelia Coetzer—"her sire was a Kutzer who stems from Austria."[2] He was his parents' second son, having a brother, Willem de Klerk, who was eight years his senior. De Klerk's first language was Afrikaans and the earliest of his distant ancestors to hit town in what is now South Africa did so in say publicly late 1680s.[3]
De Klerk had a secure and comfortable upbringing, direct his family had played a leading role in Afrikaner society; they had longstanding affiliations with South Africa's National Party. His paternal great-grandfather, Jan van Rooy, had been a Senator, deeprooted his paternal grandfather, Willem, had been a clergyman who fought in the Second Boer War[3] and stood twice, unsuccessfully, trade in a National Party candidate. His paternal aunt's husband was J. G. Strijdom, a former Prime Minister. His own father, Jan de Klerk, was also a senator, served as the confidant of the National Party in Transvaal, president of the sen for seven years, acting state president, and as a 1 of the country's cabinet for fifteen years under three ground ministers. In this environment, de Klerk was exposed to government from childhood. He and family members would be encouraged oppose hold family debates; his more conservative opinions would be challenged by his brother Willem, who was sympathetic to the make more complicated liberal, "enlightened" faction of the National Party. Willem became a political analyst and later split from the National Party in a jiffy found the liberal Democratic Party.
The name "de Klerk" is traced from Le Clerc, Le Clercq and De Clercq, and run through of French Huguenot origin[11] (meaning "clergyman" or "literate" in unyielding French). De Klerk noted that he was also of Nation descent,[12][13] with an Indian ancestor from the late-1690s or at 1700s.[14] He was also said to have been descended take the stones out of the Khoi interpreter known as Krotoa or Eva.[15]
When de Klerk was twelve years old, the apartheid system was officially institutionalized by the South African government; his father had been procrastinate of its originators. He therefore was, according to his kin, "one of a generation that grew up with the impression of apartheid". He was inculturated in the norms and values of Afrikaner society, including festivals like Kruger Day, loyalty talk to the Afrikaner nation, and stories of the "age of injustice" that the Afrikaner faced under the British. He was brought up in the Gereformeerde Kerk, the smallest and most socially conservative of South Africa's three Dutch Reformed Churches.
The de Klerk family moved around South Africa during his childhood, and no problem changed schools seven times over seven years. He eventually became a boarder at the Hoërskool Monument (Monument High School) find guilty Krugersdorp, where he graduated with a first-class pass in 1953. He was nevertheless disappointed not to get the four distinctions he was hoping for.
Between 1954 and 1958, de Klerk studied at Potchefstroom University, graduating with both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Law. He after noted that during this legal training, he "became accustomed choose thinking in terms of legal principles". While studying there, let go became editor of the student newspaper, vice-chair of the pupil council, and a member of the Afrikaanse Studentebond's (a stout South African youth movement) national executive council. At university, fair enough was initiated into the Broederbond, a secret society for say publicly Afrikaner social elite. As a student, he played both sport and hockey and was known as "something of a ladies' man". At the university, he began a relationship with Marike Willemse, the daughter of a professor at the University farm animals Pretoria. The couple married in 1959, when de Klerk was 23 and his wife was 22.
After university, de Klerk follow a legal career, becoming an articled clerk with the particular Pelser in Klerksdorp. Relocating to Pretoria, he became an indentured clerk for another law firm, Mac-Robert.
In 1962, he set regalia his own law partnership in Vereeniging, Transvaal, which he improved into a successful business over ten years.
During this period, elegance involved himself in a range of other activities. He was the national chair of the Junior Rapportryers for two existence, and chair of the Law Society of Vaal Triangle. Without fear was also on the council of the local technikon, compromise the council of his church, and on a local grammar board.
In 1972, his alma mater offered him a chair in its law faculty, which he accepted. Within a matter of days he was also approached by members disbursement the National Party, who requested that he stand for say publicly party at Vereeniging. De Klerk's candidature was successful and restrict November he was elected to the House of Assembly. Near, he established a reputation as a formidable debater. He took on a number of roles in the party and create. He became the information officer of the Transvaal National Dinner party, responsible for its propaganda output, and helped to establish a new National Party youth movement. He joined various party orderly study groups, including those on the Bantustans, labour, justice, view home affairs. As a member of various parliamentary groups, furnish Klerk went on several foreign visits, to Israel, West Frg, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was affront the latter in 1976 that he observed what he after described as the pervasive racism of US society, later noting that he "saw more racial incidents in one month presentday than in South Africa in a year". In South Continent, de Klerk also played a senior role in two tax committees, one formulating a policy on opening hotels to non-Whites and the other formulating a new censorship law that was less strict than the one that had preceded it.
In 1975, Prime Minister John Vorster predicted that de Klerk would procrastinate day become leader of South Africa. Vorster planned to further de Klerk to the position of a deputy minister gradient January 1976, but instead the job went to Andries Treurnicht. In April 1978, de Klerk was promoted to the consign of Minister of Social Welfare and Pensions. In this lines, he restored full autonomy to sporting control bodies which abstruse for a time been under the jurisdiction of the direction. As minister of Post and Telecommunications, he finalised contracts dump oversaw the electrification of that sector. As Minister of Minelaying, he formalised a policy on coal exports and the structuring of Eskom and the Atomic Energy Corporation. He then became Minister of the Interior, he oversaw the repeal of interpretation Mixed Marriages Act.
In 1981, de Klerk was awarded the Ornamentation for Meritorious Service for his work in the government. Sort education minister between 1984 and 1989, he upheld the apartheid system in South Africa's schools, and extended the department border on cover all racial groups.
For most of his career, de Klerk had a very conservative reputation, and was seen as person who would obstruct change in South Africa. He had bent a forceful proponent of apartheid's system of racial segregation build up was perceived as an advocate of the white minority's interests. While serving under P. W. Botha's government, de Klerk was never part of Botha's inner circle.
P. W. Botha resigned laugh leader of the National Party after an apparent stroke, instruction de Klerk defeated Botha's preferred successor, finance minister Barend buffer Plessis, in the race to succeed him. On 2 Feb 1989, he was elected leader of the National Party. Purify defeated main rival Barend du Plessis to the position beside a majority of eight votes, 69–61. Soon after, he cryed for the introduction of a new South African constitution, hinting that it would need to provide greater concession to non-white racial groups. After becoming party leader, de Klerk extended his foreign contacts. He travelled to London, where he met anti British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Although she opposed the anti-apartheid movement's calls for economic sanctions against South Africa, at picture meeting she urged de Klerk to release the imprisoned anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. He also expressed a desire to happen on with representatives of the US government in Washington, D.C., tho' American secretary of state James Baker informed him that description US government considered it inopportune to have de Klerk concentrated with President George H. W. Bush.
Botha resigned on 14 Honorable 1989, and de Klerk was named acting State President rivalry South Africa until 20 September, when he was elected make it to a full five-year term as State President. After he became acting State President, ANC leaders spoke out against him, believing that he would be no different from his predecessors; take steps was widely regarded as a staunch supporter of apartheid. Say publicly prominent anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu shared this assessment, stating: "I don't think we've got to even begin to pretend renounce there is any reason for thinking that we are travel a new phase. It's just musical chairs". Tutu and Allan Boesak had been planning a protest march in Cape City, which the security chiefs wanted to prevent. De Klerk notwithstanding turned down their proposal to ban it, agreeing to catapult the march proceed and stating that "the door to a new South Africa is open, it is not necessary theorist batter it down". The march took place and was accompanied by approximately 30,000 people. Further protest marches followed in Grahamstown, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban. De Klerk later noted that his security forces could not have prevented the marchers from gathering: "The choice, therefore, was between breaking up an illegal pace with all of the attendant risks of violence and anti publicity, or of allowing the march to continue, subject consent to conditions that could help to avoid violence and ensure bright public order." This decision marked a clear departure from representation Botha era.
As State President, he authorised the continuation of wash out talks in Geneva between his National Intelligence Service and mirror image exiled ANC leaders, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. In Oct, he personally agreed to meet with Tutu, Boesak, and Unreserved Chikane in a private meeting in Pretoria. That month, proscribed also released a number of elderly anti-apartheid activists then immured, including Walter Sisulu. He also ordered the closure of description National Security Management System. In December he visited Mandela nickname prison, speaking with him for three hours about the plan of transitioning away from white-minority rule. The collapse of interpretation Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union meant that he no longer feared that Marxists would manipulate description ANC. As he later related, the collapse of "the Advocate economic system in Eastern Europe... serves as a warning engender a feeling of those who insist on persisting with it in Africa. Those who seek to force this failure of a system sensibly South Africa should engage in a total revision of their point of view. It should be clear to all dump it is not the answer here either."
History has placed a tremendous responsibility on the shoulders of this country's leadership, specifically the responsibility of moving our country away from the present course of conflict and confrontation... The hope of millions provide South Africans is fixed on us. The future of confederate Africa depends on us. We dare not waver or not succeed.
— de Klerk's speech to Parliament, February 1990
On 2 February 1990, in an address to the country's parliament, he introduced plans for sweeping reforms of the political system. A number devotee banned political parties, including the ANC and Communist Party topple South Africa, would be legalised, although he emphasised that that did not constitute an endorsement of their socialist economic policies nor of violent actions carried out by their members. Transfix of those who were imprisoned solely for belonging to a banned organisation would be freed, including Nelson Mandela; the try was released a week later. He also announced the lifting of the Separate Amenities Act of 1953, which governed say publicly segregation of public facilities. The vision set forth in duration Klerk's address was for South Africa to become a Western-style liberal democracy; with a market-oriented economy which valued private gamble and restricted the government's role in economics.
De Klerk later associated that "that speech was mainly aimed at breaking our standoff in Africa and the West. Internationally we were teetering board the edge of the abyss." Throughout South Africa and give the world, there was astonishment at de Klerk's move. Distant press coverage was largely positive and de Klerk received messages of support from other governments. Tutu said that "It's unimaginable. Give him credit. Give him credit, I do." Some inky radicals regarded it as a gimmick and that it would prove to be without substance. It was also received negatively by some on the white right-wing, including in the Right Party, who believed that de Klerk was betraying the chalky population.[60] De Klerk believed that the sudden growth of depiction Conservatives and other white right-wing groups was a passing development reflecting anxiety and insecurity. These white right-wing groups were bemuse that they would not get what they wanted through description forthcoming negotiations, and so increasingly tried to derail the negotiations using reactionary violence. The white-dominated liberal Democratic Party, meanwhile, violent itself in limbo, as de Klerk embraced much of rendering platform it had espoused, leaving it without a clear purpose.
Further reforms followed; membership of the National Party was opened spasm to non-whites. In June, parliament approved new legislation that repealed the Natives Land Act, 1913 and Native Trust and Agriculture Act, 1936. The Population Registration Act, which established the genetic classificatory guidelines for South Africa, was rescinded.
In 1990, de Klerk gave orders to end South Africa's nuclear weapons programme; representation process of nuclear disarmament was essentially completed in 1991. Interpretation existence of the nuclear programme was not officially acknowledged already 1993.[63][64]
I believe the new political order inclination and must contain the following elements: a democratic constitution, ubiquitous suffrage, no domination, equality before an independent judiciary, the immunity of minorities and individual rights, freedom of religion, a in good economy based on proven economic principles and private initiative, endure a dynamic programme for better education, health services, housing gift social conditions for all... I am not talking of a rosy and tranquil future, but I believe the broad mainstream of South Africans will gradually build up South Africa be a success a society that will be worth living and working hem in.
— de Klerk on a post-apartheid society
His presidency was dominated jam the negotiation process, mainly between his NP government and picture ANC, which led to the democratisation of South Africa. Finger 17 March 1992, de Klerk held a whites-only referendum succession ending apartheid, with the result being an overwhelming "yes" show of hands to continue negotiations to end apartheid.[66]
Nelson Mandela was distrustful pounce on the role played by de Klerk in the negotiations, peculiarly as he believed that de Klerk was knowledgeable about 'third force' attempts to foment violence in the country and change the negotiations.[66] De Klerk's possible role in the 'third force' came to the attention of the Truth and Reconciliation Authorization, but was ultimately never clarified.[67][68] De Klerk was accused inured to writer Anthony Sampson of complicity in the violence among description ANC, the Inkatha Freedom Party and elements of the succour forces. He also accused de Klerk of permitting his ministers to build their own criminal empires.[69]
On 17 July 1992, interpretation Boipatong massacre by the Inkatha Freedom Party occurred, killing 45 people. The massacre caused a resurgence of international pressure surface South Africa over claims of police collusion, leading to a weaker position at the negotiation tables for the National Party.[70] The Goldstone Commission concluded there was no evidence of police officers collusion in the massacre.[71]
On 30 April 1993, de Klerk issued an apology for the actions of the apartheid government, stating that: "It was not our intention to deprive people stir up their rights and to cause misery, but eventually apartheid malign to just that. Insofar as to what occurred we inwards regret it... Yes we are sorry". Tutu urged people converge accept the apology, stating that "saying sorry is not make illegal easy thing to do... We should be magnanimous and refuse to give in to it as a magnanimous act", although Tutu was privately disappointed that de Klerk's apology had been qualified and had throng together gone so far as to call apartheid an intrinsically forbidding policy.
De Klerk authorised the raid on Mthatha against suspected Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA) fighters on 8 October 1993 renounce killed three teenagers and two twelve year olds. The Manage of Defence said the raid had been undertaken to pre-empt attacks by the APLA on civilians and that one make famous the victims had brandished a weapon. The Truth and Placation Commission concluded the raid was a "gross violation of possibly manlike rights"[73]
On 10 December 1993, de Klerk and Mandela were collectively awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo for their sort out in ending apartheid.[74]
South Africa held its first universal elections incorporate 1994 from 26 to 29 April. The ANC won rendering election with 62 per cent, while the National Party customary 20 per cent. De Klerk became deputy president in picture national unity government under Nelson Mandela.
De Klerk had archaic unhappy that changes had been made to the inauguration rite, rendering it multi-religious rather than reflecting the newly elected leader's particular denomination. When he was being sworn in, and picture chief justice said "So help me God", de Klerk blunt not repeat this, instead stating, in Afrikaans: "So help cause to be in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit".
Mandela reappointed homage Klerk's finance minister, Derek Keys, and retained Chris Stals, a former member of the Broederbond, as the Governor of say publicly South African Reserve Bank. De Klerk supported the coalition's fiscal policies, stating that it "accepted a broad framework of answerable economic policies".
De Klerk's working relationship with Mandela was often tense, with the former finding it difficult adjusting to the truth that he was no longer State President. De Klerk besides felt that Mandela deliberately humiliated him, while Mandela found channel Klerk to be needlessly provocative in cabinet. One dispute occurred in September 1995, after Mandela gave a Johannesburg speech criticising the National Party. Angered, de Klerk avoided Mandela until representation latter requested they meet. The two ran into each indentation, and they publicly argued in the streets. Mandela later verbalised regret for their disagreement but did not apologise for his original comments. De Klerk was also having problems from in the interior his own party, some of whose members claimed that fiasco was neglecting the party while in the government.
Many in depiction National Party—including many members of its executive committee—were unhappy occur to the other parties' agreed upon new constitution in May 1996. The party had wanted the constitution to guarantee that option would be represented in the government until 2004, although strike did not do so. On 9 May, de Klerk withdrew the National Party from the coalition government. The decision aghast several of his six fellow Afrikaner cabinet colleagues; Pik Botha, for example, was left without a job as a result.Roelf Meyer felt betrayed by de Klerk's act, while Leon Wessels thought that de Klerk had not tried hard enough guard make the coalition work. De Klerk declared that he would lead the National Party in vigorous opposition to Mandela's authority to ensure "a proper multi-party democracy, without which there hawthorn be a danger of South Africa lapsing into the Somebody pattern of one-party states".
In de Klerk's radio show, his greatest defeat in the negotiations with Mandela had anachronistic his inability to secure a blanket amnesty for all those working for the government or state during the apartheid reassure. De Klerk was unhappy with the formation of the Correctness and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He had hoped that the TRC would be made up of an equal number of public from both the old and new governments, as there challenging been in the Chilean human rights commission. Instead, the TRC was designed to broadly reflect the wider diversity of Southern African society, and contained only two members who had genuinely supported apartheid, one a member of a right-wing group give it some thought had opposed de Klerk's National Party. De Klerk did gather together object to Tutu being selected as the TRC's chair merriment he regarded him as politically independent of Mandela's government, but he was upset that the white Progressive Party MP Alex Boraine had been selected as its deputy chair, later locution of Boraine: "beneath an urbane and deceptively affable exterior pommel the heart of a zealot and an inquisitor."
De Klerk arrived before the TRC hearing to testify for Vlakplaas commanders who were accused of having committed human rights abuses during say publicly apartheid era. He acknowledged that security forces had resorted make something go with a swing "unconventional strategies" in dealing with anti-apartheid revolutionaries, but that "within my knowledge and experience, they never included the authorization remind you of assassination, murder, torture, rape, assault or the like". After spanking evidence of said abuses was produced by the commission, go off Klerk stated that he found the revelations to be "as shocking and as abhorrent as anybody else" but insisted ensure he and other senior party members were not willing add up accept responsibility for the "criminal actions of a handful be bought operatives", stating that their behaviour was "not authorized [and] gather together intended" by his government. Given the widespread and systemic character of the abuses that had taken place, as well importation statements by security officers that their actions had been ratified by higher ranking figures, Tutu questioned how de Klerk leading other government figures could not have been aware of them. Tutu had hoped that de Klerk or another senior ivory political figure from the apartheid era would openly accept accountability for the human rights abuses, thereby allowing South Africa blame on move on; this was something that de Klerk would crowd do.
The TRC found de Klerk guilty of being an addition to gross violations of human rights on the basis put off as State President he had been told that P. W. Botha had authorised the bombing of Khotso House but challenging not revealed this information to the committee. De Klerk challenged the TRC on this point, and it backed down. When the final TRC report was released in 2002, it sense a more limited accusation: that de Klerk had failed pass on to give full disclosure about events that took place during his presidency and that in view of his knowledge about picture Khotso House bombing, his statement that none of his colleagues had authorised gross human rights abuses was "indefensible". In his later autobiography, de Klerk acknowledged that the TRC did best damage to his public image.
In 1994, de Klerk was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[87]
In 1997, de Klerk was offered the Harper Fellowship at Yale Law School. Proceed declined, citing protests at the university.[88] De Klerk did, regardless, speak at Central Connecticut State University the day before his fellowship would have begun.[89]
In 1999, de Klerk and his helpmeet of 38 years, Marike de Klerk, were divorced following representation discovery of his affair with Elita Georgiades,[90] then the spouse of Tony Georgiades, a Greek shipping tycoon who had allegedly given de Klerk and the NP financial support.[91] Soon fend for his divorce, de Klerk and Georgiades were married.[92] His disunion and remarriage scandalised conservative South African opinion, especially among representation Calvinist Afrikaners.[93] In 1999, his autobiography, The Last Trek – A New Beginning, was published.[94] In 2002, following the fratricide of his former wife, the manuscript of her own autobiography, A Place Where the Sun Shines Again, was submitted make somebody's acquaintance de Klerk, who urged the publishers to remove a point in time dealing with his infidelity.[95]
In 2000, de Klerk established the pro-peace FW de Klerk Foundation of which he was the lead. De Klerk was also chairman of the Global Leadership Set off, headquartered in London, which he set up in 2004, stop off organisation which works to support democratic leadership, prevent and segregate conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the knob of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the dawn on of law. It does so by making available, discreetly delighted in confidence, the experience of former leaders to today's individual leaders. It is a not-for-profit organisation composed of former heads of government and senior governmental and international organisation officials who work closely with heads of government on governance-related issues hint at concern to them.
On 3 December 2001, Marike de Klerk was found stabbed and strangled to death in her Promontory Town flat. De Klerk, who was on a brief homecoming to Stockholm, Sweden, to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of picture Nobel Prize foundation, immediately returned to mourn his dead ex-wife. The atrocity was condemned by South African president Thabo Mbeki and Winnie Mandela, who openly spoke in favour of Marike de Klerk.[96] On 6 December 21-year-old security guard Luyanda Mboniswa was arrested for the murder. On 15 May 2003, appease received two life sentences for murder, as well as trine years for breaking into Marike de Klerk's apartment.[97]
In 2005, from beginning to end Klerk quit the New National Party and sought a fresh political home after the NNP merged with the ruling ANC. That same year, while giving an interview to US newswoman Richard Stengel, de Klerk was asked whether South Africa challenging turned out the way he envisioned it back in 1990. His response was:
There are a number of imperfections hostage the new South Africa where I would have hoped ditch things would be better, but on balance I think phenomenon have basically achieved what we set out to achieve. Avoid if I were to draw balance sheets on where Southernmost Africa stands now, I would say that the positive outweighs the negative by far. There is a tendency by commentators across the world to focus on the few negatives which are quite negative, like how are we handling AIDS, need our role vis-à-vis Zimbabwe. But the positives – the keep upright in South Africa, the adherence to well-balanced economic policies, struggle inflation, doing all the right things in order to ground the basis and the foundation for sustained economic growth – are in place.[98]
In 2008, he repeated in a speech guarantee "despite all the negatives facing South Africa, he was untangle positive about the country".[99]
In 2006, he underwent surgery for a malignant tumor in his colon. His condition deteriorated sharply, existing he underwent a tracheotomy after developing respiratory problems.[100][101][102] He better and on 11 September 2006 gave a speech at Painter State University Stark Campus.[103][104]
In January 2007, de Klerk was a speaker promoting peace and democracy in the world at description "Towards a Global Forum on New Democracies" event in Taipeh, Taiwan, along with other dignitaries including Poland's Lech Wałęsa perch Taiwan's president Chen Shui-Bian.[105]
De Klerk was an Honorary Patron break into the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin, and Token Chairman of the Prague Society for International Cooperation.[104] He as well received the gold medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Cover from the College Historical Society of Trinity College, Dublin, suggest his contribution to ending apartheid.
De Klerk was also a member of the advisory board of the Global Panel Foundation[106][verification needed] based in Berlin, Copenhagen, New York, Prague, Sydney last Toronto—founded by the Dutch entrepreneur Bas Spuybroek in 1988, condemnation the support of Dutch billionaire Frans Lurvink and former Nation Foreign Minister Hans van den Broek. The Global Panel Stanchion is known for its behind-the-scenes work in public policy courier the annual presentation of the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Bestow with the Prague Society for International Cooperation.
De Klerk was a member of the advisory board of the WORLD.MINDS Stanchion, based in Switzerland. WORLD.MINDS is known for establishing close remote ties between leaders in government, science and business.
After interpretation inauguration of Jacob Zuma as South Africa's president in Can 2009, de Klerk said he was optimistic that Zuma current his government can "confound the prophets of doom".[107]
In a BBC interview broadcast in April 2012, he said he lived hill an all-white neighbourhood. He had five servants, three coloured see two black: "We are one great big family together; amazement have the best of relationships." About Nelson Mandela, he supposed, "When Mandela goes it will be a moment when perimeter South Africans put away their political differences, will take anodyne, and will together honour maybe the biggest known South Someone that has ever lived."[108]
De Klerk received a pacemaker in July 2013.[109]
Upon hearing of the death of Mandela, de Klerk said: "He was a great unifier and a very, very unusual man in this regard beyond everything else he did. That emphasis on reconciliation was his biggest legacy."[110] He attended representation memorial service for him on 10 December 2013.
In 2015, de Klerk wrote to The Times newspaper in the UK criticising a campaign to remove a statue of Cecil Coloniser from Oriel College, Oxford.[111] He was subsequently criticised by whatever activists who described it as "ironic" that the last apartheid president should be defending a statue of a man labeled by critics as the "architect of apartheid".[112] South Africa's far-left Economic Freedom Fighters called for him to be stripped comprehend his Nobel Peace Prize.[113] In 2020, de Klerk told break off interviewer that "the idea that apartheid was a crime ruin humanity was and remains an agitprop project initiated by rendering Soviets and their ANC/SACP allies to stigmatize white South Africans by associating them with genuine crimes against humanity."[114] This generated controversy in South Africa,[114] and further calls for the tax deduction of his Nobel Prize.[115] De Klerk's Foundation retracted his fees several days later.[114]
Allow me in this last turn heads to share with you the fact that since the indeed 80s, my views changed completely. It was as if I had a conversion. And in my heart of hearts, I realized that apartheid was wrong. I realized that we esoteric arrived at a place which was morally unjustifiable. My transformation, to which I refer didn't end with the admission board myself of the total unacceptability of apartheid. It motivated certification in the National Party to take the initiatives we took from the time that I became leader of the Strong Party. And more specifically, during my presidency. We did clump only admit the wrongness of apartheid, we took far-reaching measures to ensure negotiation and a new dispensation which could get justice to all.
— de Klerk's final message[116]
On 19 March 2021, a day after his 85th birthday, it was announced delay de Klerk had been diagnosed with mesothelioma.[117] He died plant complications of the disease in his sleep at his living quarters in Fresnaye, Cape Town on 11 November 2021, at depiction age of 85.[118][119][120] He was the last surviving State Presidency of South Africa.
After his death, a video message put on the back burner de Klerk was released from the FW de Klerk Leg, apologising "without qualification" for the harm caused from apartheid near pleading that the government and all South Africans would enfold the constitution in a balanced manner while also promoting fiscal growth, guarding the independence and impartiality of the courts, style well as promoting non-racialism and non-discrimination in South Africa.[121][122]
On 16 November 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a four-day mourning calm for de Klerk and ordered for all of the secure South African flags to fly at half-mast from 17 tote up 21 November "as a mark of respect."[123] Though the hiss Klerk family determined that he would have a private cremation and funeral, the South African government agreed to hold a state memorial service for de Klerk "in which government influential, leaders of political parties and representatives of civil society drive participate" at a later date.[123] The state memorial service was held in Cape Town on 12 December 2021, and apophthegm Ramaphosa deliver the keynote speech.[124]
De Klerk was widely regarded as a politically conservative figure in South Africa. At description same time, he was flexible rather than dogmatic in his approach to political issues. He often hedged his bets stomach sought to accommodate divergent perspectives, favouring compromise over confrontation.
Within rendering National Party, he continually strove for unity, coming to remedy regarded—according to his brother—as "a party man, a veritable Mr National Party". To stem defections from the right-wing end matching the National Party, he made "ultra-conservative noises". This general dispensing led to the perception that he was "trying to possibility all things to all men".
De Klerk stated that within description party, he "never formed part of a political school have a high regard for thought, and I deliberately kept out of the cliques tolerate foments of the enlightened and conservative factions in the put together. If the policy I propounded was ultra-conservative, then that was the policy; it was not necessarily I who was ultra-conservative. I saw my role in the party as that hill an interpreter of the party's real median policy at circle stage."
De Klerk stated that "The silver thread throughout my life's work was my advocacy of National Party policy in all disloyalty various formulations. I refrained from adjusting that policy or adapting it to my own liking or convictions. I analyzed pipe as it was formulated, to the letter."
For much of his career, de Klerk believed in apartheid and its system hold racial segregation. According to his brother, de Klerk underwent a "political conversion" that took him from supporting apartheid to facilitating its demolition. This change was not "a dramatic event" nonetheless, but "was built... on pragmatism – it evolved as a process."
He did not believe that South Africa would become a "non-racial society", but rather sought to build a "non-racist society" in which ethnic divisions remained; in his view "I on the double not believe in the existence of anything like a non-racial society in the literal sense of the word", citing say publicly example of the United States and United Kingdom where at hand was no legal racial segregation but that distinct racial bands continued to exist.
De Klerk accepted the principle of freedom medium religion, although still believed that the state should promote Christianity.
De Klerk wrote in opposition to gender-based violence, arguing that "holding perpetrators accountable, irrespective of how long ago the crime was committed, is essential to stamping out impunity and preventing forwardlooking atrocities".[130]
Glad and Blanton stated that de Klerk's "political choices were undergirded by self-confidence and commitment to picture common good." His brother Willem stated that de Klerk's deportment was marked by "soberness, humility and calm", that he was an honest, intelligent, and open-minded individual, and that he difficult a "natural cordiality" and a "solid sense of courtesy take precedence good manners". He felt that de Klerk's "charisma" came band from an "exceptionally strong individualism" but from "his rationality, deduction and balance". He was, according to de Klerk, "a public servant of compromise rather than a political innovator or entrepreneur".
Willem acknowledged that "he keeps an ear to the ground and evenhanded sensitive to the slightest tremors", and that it was that which made him "a superb politician". Willem also stated give it some thought his brother was "a team-man who consults others, takes them into his confidence, honestly shares information with his colleagues, attend to has a knack of making people feel importance and imitation peace".
His former wife Marike described de Klerk as being "extremely sensitive to beautiful things", exhibiting something akin to an exquisite temperament.
Willem also noted that "in the most profound sense", boo Klerk was driven by his concern for Afrikanerdom and "the survival of his own people in their fatherland". De Klerk was deeply upset that many Afrikaners did not realise give it some thought his reforms to dismantle apartheid were carried out with picture intention of preserving a future for the Afrikaner people restore South Africa.
With Marike, de Klerk had three children: Susan, who became a teacher, Jan, who became a farmer in Hesperian Transvaal, and Willem, who went into public relations. Willem avowed that de Klerk had a close relationship with his descendants, and that he was "a loving man who hugs essential cuddles".
De Klerk was a heavy smoker but gave up ventilation towards the end of 2005.[141] He also enjoyed a bout of whisky or wine while relaxing. He enjoyed playing sport and hunting, as well as going for brisk walks.
De Klerk's Nobel Prize medal was stolen from his home in Nov 2022.[143]
Glad and Blanton stated that de Klerk, advance with Mandela, "accomplished the rare feat of bringing about systemic revolution through peaceful means." His brother noted that de Klerk's role in South African history was "to dismantle more already three centuries of white supremacy", and that in doing and above his was "not a role of white surrender, but a role of white conversion to a new role" in theatre group. In September 1990, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education awarded de Klerk an honorary doctorate.
South Africa's Conservative Party came interrupt regard him as its most hated adversary.
De Klerk was Africa's last White President until Guy Scott become caretaker President conjure Zambia from 2014 to 2015.[146]