Biography of f&w de klerk releases mandela

State President of South Africa from 1989 to 1994

In this article, the surname is de Klerk, not Klerk.

Frederik Willem de KlerkOMG DMS (də-KLURK, də-KLAIRK, Afrikaans:[ˈfriədərəkˈvələmdəˈklɛrk]; 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician 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 era of white-minority rule, he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Ideologically a social conservative and an economic liberal, he led the National Party (NP) from 1989 to 1997.

Born in Johannesburg to an influential Afrikaner family, de Klerk studied at Potchefstroom University before pursuing a career in law. Joining the NP, to which he had family ties, he was elected to parliament and sat in the white-minority government of P. W. Botha, holding a succession of ministerial posts. As a minister, he supported and enforced apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged white South Africans. After Botha resigned in 1989, de Klerk replaced him, first as leader of the NP and then as State President. Although observers expected him to continue Botha's defence of apartheid, de Klerk decided to end the policy. He was aware that growing ethnic animosity and violence was leading South Africa into a racial civil war. Amid this violence, the state security forces committed widespread human rights abuses and encouraged violence between the Xhosa and Zulu people, although de Klerk later denied sanctioning such actions. He permitted anti-apartheid marches to take place, legalised a range of previously banned anti-apartheid political parties, and freed imprisoned anti-apartheid activists such as Nelson Mandela. He also dismantled South Africa's nuclear weapons program.

De Klerk negotiated with Mandela to fully dismantle apartheid and establish a transition to universa

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F W de Klerk was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on 18 March 1936. He is the son of Senator Jan de Klerk, a leading politician, who became a minister in the South African government.. F W de Klerk graduated with a law degree from Potchefstroom University in 1958 and then practiced law in Vereeniging in the Transvaal. De Klerk was offered a professorship of administrative law at Potchefstroom in 1972 but he declined the post because he had been elected to parliament as National Party (NP) member for Vereeniging. In 1978, F W de Klerk was appointed Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and Social Welfare and Pensions by Prime Minister Vorster. Under Prime Minister P W Botha he held a succession of ministerial posts, including Posts and Telecommunications, Sports and Recreation (1978-1979), Mines, Energy and Environmental Planning (1979-1980), Mineral and Energy Affairs (1980-1982), Internal Affairs (1982-1985), and National Education and Planning (1984-1989). In 1985, he became chairman of the Minister's Council in the House of Assembly. On 1 December 1986 he became the leader of the House of Assembly. As Minister of National Education, F W de Klerk was a supporter of segregated universities, and as a leader of the National Party (NP) in Transvaal he was not known to advocate reform. In February 1989, De Klerk was elected leader of the National Party (NP) and in September 1989 he was elected State President. In his speech on 2nd February 1990 he called for a non-racist South Africa and for negotiations about the country's future. He lifted the ban on the ANC and SACP and released Nelson Mandela. 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. Mandela was over

In 1991, two years after he became president of South Africa, F.W. de Klerk, who died at the age of 85, secretly met with Nelson Mandela at Tuynhus, the South African president’s residence in Cape Town. Mandela was then prisoner number 466/64 at nearby Victor Verster prison. Mandela may have been a prisoner, but he was by then the most famous political prisoner in the world. De Klerk was a longtime National Party functionary who had succeeded the ferocious P.W. Botha as the head of the racist apartheid government of South Africa.

It was the first time they had met, and prison officials had hurriedly ordered a three-piece suit and tie for Mandela. The meeting was formal, but cordial. The two discussed the future of South Africa and Mandela’s possible release. De Klerk and the National Party had recently released a five-year plan that enshrined the idea of “group rights,” a version of traditional apartheid policy that said whites and blacks would remain separate with neither dominant. South African Blacks saw this as a way of avoiding majority rule.

Mandela didn’t hesitate. He said that was unacceptable.

Mandela recalled all of this to me in 1993 when I was working with him on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. We discussed de Klerk many times during our sixty plus hours of taped interviews, but here he was describing that first meeting, and doing so with enthusiasm. All of Mandela’s quotes are from the transcripts of those interviews.

“I told him that I totally rejected that. I referred to an article which was written in Die Burger, which is an Afrikaner newspaper—the mouthpiece of the National Party in the Cape—in which the editor said that the concept of groups rights was conceived as an attempt to bring apartheid in through the back door. And I said to Mr. de Klerk that if your own paper says that, then you can imagine what we

My interview with FW de Klerk:

Jeff Cunningham: Before we get into the subject of your fascinating career as president of South Africa, the man who dismantled apartheid, and your relationship with Nelson Mandela, tell me what brings you to the island of Malta?

FW de Klerk: 12 years ago, I started the Global Leadership Foundation. We’re holding our annual meeting this year in Malta. This foundation now has 40, members, all former prime ministers, presidents, cabinet ministers, senior diplomats. All of us have good experience of governance. None of us hold political office, but we have a store of experience and knowledge gained from our years in government. We learned from our own mistakes.

With all the world’s problems, I imagine the Global Leadership Foundation has more business than it can handle?

Actually, we have to knock on the right doors, and say, “We think you can benefit by sitting down for a weekend with us, and working through your problems,” before we get an invitation. We don’t get telephone calls saying, “please come and give me advice.” That’s not how it works.

“Political leaders don’t easily admit that they can benefit, or that they need outside advice.”

Why are political leaders reluctant to seek advice?

It’s in the fabric of politicians, and of business leaders that they feel that might undermine their position.

Is criticism by the leader’s opponents a concern?

That’s true, although, we have experienced that some of the leaders would like us to also interact with their opponents. At times, we end up building bridges between the governing party, and opposing parties.

Take us back to your time as president, having just won election in September 1989, how prepared were you for the future that awaited?

When I became president, I didn’t have to look for a vision. I was ready, and I was convinced of what had to be done in South Africa to