PERSONALITY PROFILE

FW de Klerk

“De Klerk’s legacy is a big one. It is also an uneven one, something South Africans are called to reckon with in this moment.” — Sello Hatang, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation

Following the death of FW de Klerk on 11 November 2021, aged 85, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa released a statement in which he credited the former president with playing a “vital role in our transition to democracy in the 1990s, which originated from his first meeting in 1989, with President Nelson Mandela, who was a political prisoner at that stage.”

De Klerk “took the courageous decision to unban political parties, release political prisoners and enter into negotiations with the liberation movement amid severe pressure to the contrary from many in his political constituency,” he said, adding that he was “a committed South African who embraced the democratic constitutional dispensation and placed the long-term future of the country ahead of narrow political interests. Serving as Deputy President from 1994 to 1996, Mr De Klerk played an important role in the Government of National Unity, dedicating himself to the constitutional imperative of healing the divisions and conflict of our past. Deputy President De Klerk’s passing, weeks before the 25th anniversary of our democratic Constitution, should inspire all of us to reflect on the birth of our democracy and on our shared duty to remain true to the values of our Constitution. May his soul rest in peace.”

The early years

Frederik Willem “FW” de Klerk was born on 18 March 1936 in Johannesburg to a cabinet minister father, which perhaps accounted for his interest in politics from a young age. He matriculated at Monument High School in Krugersdorp, after which he attended Potchefstroom University. In 1958 he graduated with BA and LLB degrees (cum laude) and then landed his first job with a firm of attorneys in Vereeniging. In 1972 he was offered the position of Chair of Administrative Law at Potchefstroom University but declined it, having decided to enter active politics. That same year, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Vereeniging.

In 1978, just after his 42nd birthday and, with a mere five and a half years as a back bencher (defined by the Collins Dictionary as a member of Parliament who is not a minister and who does not hold an official position in his or her political party), he was appointed to the Cabinet.

During the ensuing 11 years, he was responsible for various portfolios including Posts and Telecommunications; Social Welfare and Pensions; Sport and Recreation; Mining and Environmental Planning; Mineral and Energy Affairs; Internal Affairs and the Public Service; and National Education, the portfolio he held when he was elected as State President in 1989. It was a position he held until the inauguration of the country’s first democratically-elected president Nelson Mandela on 10 May 1994, after which he served as deputy president in the National Unity Government until 1996.

In his address at the opening of the second session of the ninth parliament in South Africa on 2 February 1990, he said: “Our country and all its people have been embroiled in conflict, tension and violent struggle for decades. It is time for us to break out of the cycle of violence and break through to peace and reconciliation. The silent majority is yearning for this. The youth deserve it.”

According to Wikipedia, his decision to end apartheid came as a surprise/shock to many. “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.”

A multiple award winner with a host of honorary titles bestowed on him during his long career, his most significant was surely the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Nelson Mandela in 1993 “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”

He was a controversial figure among many sections of South African society, says Wikipedia, for varying reasons. On the negative side, he was criticised for not apologising without reserve for apartheid; for failing to address human rights abuses committed by state security forces, and for selling out the white minority.

His personal life also came under negative scrutiny, when in 1999, his affair with Elita Georgiades was exposed, effectively ending his marriage to Marike de Klerk (who was murdered in 2000).

Addressing the past

In his “Dealing with the Past” speech to the Cape Town Press Club in October 2020, De Klerk denied that the antiapartheid negotiations were the result of any weakness on the part of the ruling party but rather because “we genuinely wanted to find a just and lasting solution to the vexatious problems that had divided us for generations. We wanted to create a better country for all our children.”

In the same speech, he referred to his ‘apology‘ being “grounded in a deep and growing understanding of the pain, humiliation and damage that apartheid has caused for a majority of all South Africans. It is in this spirit that my colleagues and I repealed the last vestiges of apartheid legislation before we opened the way to negotiations on a new and inclusive non-racial constitution. In 1994, the baton passed to a new generation of leaders. Their challenge is to take the political, economic and constitutional situation that they inherited and to ensure that they leave a better legacy for the next generation.”

“In this regard, we all face tremendous problems,” he continued. “South Africa is a traumatised society. Traumatised by the legacy of apartheid. But also traumatised by growing poverty and unemployment, by violent crime and corruption, by gender violence and by an imploding economy.”

In January 1999 De Klerk published his autobiography “The Last Trek – a New Beginning”. In the same year, he established the FW de Klerk Foundation to uphold the South African Constitution, promote peace in multicommunal societies, preserve his own presidential heritage and South Africa’s constitutional transformation from apartheid to a non-racial constitutional democracy.

Diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer in 2020, FW lost his battle to the disease on 11 November 2021. Up until the time of his death, he lived in Fresnaye in Cape Town, where he read, enjoyed being outdoors and playing golf, and spending time with his family. His cremation and funeral took place on 21 November 2021, a private occasion shared only with those dearest to him.

Taken at the first meeting between FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.