South Africa’s last apartheid president FW de Klerk dies at 85

Former South African president FW de Klerk (Sasa Kralj/AP)

FW de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela and as South Africa’s last apartheid president oversaw the end of the country’s white minority rule, has died at the age of 85.

Mr de Klerk, who had been diagnosed with cancer, died at his home in the Fresnaye area of Cape Town, a spokesman for the FW de Klerk Foundation confirmed on Thursday.

Mr de Klerk was a controversial figure in South Africa where many blamed him for violence against Black South Africans and anti-apartheid activists during his time in power, while some white people saw his efforts to end apartheid as a betrayal.

Former South African president FW de Klerk (Schalk van Zuydam/AP)

It was Mr de Klerk who in a speech to South Africa’s parliament on February 2 1990, announced that Mr Mandela would be released from prison after 27 years.

The announcement electrified a country that for decades had been scorned and sanctioned by much of the world for its brutal system of racial discrimination known as apartheid.

With South Africa’s isolation deepening and its once-solid economy deteriorating, Mr de Klerk – who had been elected president five months earlier – also announced in the same speech the lifting of the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid political groups.

Amid gasps, several members of parliament left the chamber as he spoke.

Nelson Mandela, left, and FW de Klerk pose with their Nobel Peace Prize Gold Medal and Diploma in Oslo in 1993 (Jon Eeg/Pool photo via AP)

Nine days later, Mr Mandela walked free.

Four years after that, Mr Mandela was elected as the country’s first black president as black South Africans voted for the first time.

By then, Mr de Klerk and Mr Mandela had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their often tense co-operation in moving South Africa away from institutionalised racism and towards democracy.