biography
| name: |
de Klerk, F(rederick) W(illem)
|
pronunciation:
[duh klairk]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1936– )
|
| biography:
| South African statesman and president (1989–94), born in Johannesburg, NE South Africa. He studied at Potchestroom University, and established a legal practice in Vereeniging. He served in the National Party cabinets under Vorster and P W Botha, and in 1989, when he was minister of education, succeeded Botha as leader in a ‘palace coup’, becoming president when Botha resigned. He won a general election, though with a reduced number of seats, and set about the dismantling of apartheid. Nelson Mandela was released in February 1990; the state of emergency was lifted; the principal apartheid laws were repealed; constitutional talks were instituted; and victory in a whites-only referendum enabled de Klerk to press on with his reforms. International sanctions were lifted, and the world resumed sporting links with South Africa. However communal violence continued, particularly between the African National Congress and the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party; and the Goldstone Commission, appointed by de Klerk, discovered that whites in the police and armed forces were responsible for fomenting some of this inter-black violence. The culmination of the process was the signing of a new constitutional agreement with Mandela in late 1993, and in the same year he and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. De Klerk later served as vice-president (1994–6) in the Mandela administration, and announced his retirement from politics in August 1997. |
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