Frederik Willem de Klerk, the former president of South Africa who shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela, died of cancer at the age of 85, the foundation created by the former head of government reported on Thursday.
“With great regret, the FW de Klerk Foundation must announce that President FW de Klerk died peacefully in his own home in Fresnaye this morning after fighting mesothelioma cancer,” it said in an earlier statement.
The text recalls that the Nobel Peace Prize leaves his wife Elita, children Jan and Susan, as well as grandchildren.
FW de Klerk, who was South Africa’s last white president, had announced the disease – which affects the tissue that lines the lungs, stomach, heart and other organs – on the last anniversary, celebrated on March 18 of this year.
He ruled the country at the end of the racist apartheid system. Head of government between 1989 and 1994, FW de Klerk opened the doors for the dismantling of the segregationist regime, in a scenario of great international pressure, after more than four decades of oppression of whites against blacks in the country.
The opening allowed South Africa to hold the first democratic elections in 1994. A year earlier, FW de Klerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Nelson Mandela.
Among the former president’s legacy is, in particular, the speech given on December 2, 1990, in which he announced the beginning of the end of apartheid and the immediate release of the country’s political prisoners, which included Mandela himself.
“It is time for us to break out of the cycle of violence and open the way towards peace and reconciliation. The silent majority is longing for this,” said FW de Klerk at the time.
He later became vice president of South Africa’s first democratic government, which was led by Mandela.
Despite being remembered as the leader who paved the way for the end of apartheid, FW de Klerk has a controversial legacy, as the marks of the segregationist regime are still present in the country, in the form of socioeconomic inequalities.
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