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FW de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid-era president, spearheaded one of the political developments of the late 20th century: the liberalization of white supremacy in a state of extraordinary peace.
De Klerk, who died at his home in Cape Town at the age of 85, shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize Award with Nelson Mandela, the country’s first democratically elected president, over the issue of apartheid.
But, many years after this peaceful transition, South Africans still have reason to reflect on Mandela’s expression on de Klerk, even within the framework of peace talks. In his 1999 memoirs, de Klerk said Mandela called him the leader of a “minority dictatorship”. Some viewed him as unwilling to admit to the depths of a racist case.
With more courage and ideas than any former Africaner leader, de Klerk changed the face of South Africa’s politics when, in 1990, he released Mandela from prison for decades and officially registered the African National Congress, which took power four years later.
De Klerk had the courage and vision to do what no other Western politician could have imagined: not just to admit that apartheid, South Africa’s most dangerous experiment in human culture, did not work, but to follow these ideas to the end – to black. mass domination was inevitable and that the whites would have done better to accept it when they still had the power to force them to earn a fair profit.
De Klerk has often said that he took steps to avoid the threat of the genocide that plagued Rhodesia before Zimbabwe.
FW de Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela, the country’s first democratically elected president, over anti-apartheid © Jon Eeg / NTB Scanpix / AP
Although he was a devout man – de Klerk was a “Dopper”, a member of the Gereformeerde Kerk, a devout follower of the Dutch Reformed churches in South Africa – his anti-apartheid ideology seemed to be far more important than morality.
He acknowledged the futility of trying to keep South Africa under white rule in the face of the massive migration of black job seekers to the cities from apartheid-era “scattered and poor” countries. But he slowly turned around to change his ways.
Born March 18, 1936, Frederik Willem de Klerk became an active member of Africaner youth organizations who allied themselves with the South African National Party, which seized power from the old, English-speaking government, led by the whites in 1948 and began building racism. His NP line was flawless.
Jan’s father was a senator and a member of the cabinet under Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the chief architect of apartheid. His grandfather was a senior NP politician and a colleague of Paul Kruger, an Afrikanerdom official. De Klerk also held a number of positions from 1978 until becoming President of the last white government, elected in 1989.
De Klerk’s brother, political commentator Wimpie de Klerk, insisted that FW (as he was known around the world) fostered an image of self-control to ensure strong influence within the party. In his book FW de Klerk: A Man In His Time, Wimpie explains: “In African politics, power is based on conservation thinking; over time you gain confidence, and once you do you can practice magic with Afrikaner. This was the way of FW. “
FW de Klerk shakes hands with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Johannesburg © Trevor Samson / AFP via Getty Images
Even so, de Klerk found his fellow Africans so skeptical of political reforms that they were not openly hostile. Many Africans were called heretics and threatened by extremists.
While political talks seemed to be going well, with increasing violence, he became the object of hatred by a few white people who feared or opposed change – and to many ANC supporters, who accused him of ignoring the violence. of security.
Although he continued to fight for white supremacy in the post-apartheid state, his point was gradually distorted until he came to terms with what was actually a series of laws.
From 1994 to 1996 he served as Deputy President under Mandela, along with Thabo Mbeki. He resigned as leader of his party the following year. His private life sparked controversy when he divorced his 39-year-old wife, Marike Willemse, and married Elita Georgiades. His first wife, who had a daughter and two sons, was killed in their Cape Town home in 2001.
By establishing a peace movement FW de Klerk Foundation and the Global Leadership Foundation, a group of former world leaders and governments, has dedicated themselves to the lives of the people of South Africa. In 2004 he left the New National Party after announcing it would join the ruling ANC.
Yet he is often angry, say a Interview with CNN in 2012 that he apologized only for unfair discrimination, not for promoting the idea of “different but equal”, racist countries in South Africa.
“The Czechs have it and the Slovaks have it,” he continued, seemingly insignificant comparing the velvet divorce of Eastern Europe with the flaws in a system that was never designed to provide great cities, better places or more salt resources. .
In 2020 de Klerk denied that racism was a crime against humanity, repeating itself abusive speech to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission decades ago. He later backed off and said “it was time to talk about non-discrimination”.
De Klerk may have been a minor and, as president, became skeptical of the opposition. Worse still, he may be at fault for his reluctance to remove obstructive police officers and delay in tracking down the perpetrators of the violence.
His hope of maintaining African influence in the terrorist organization may be in vain. But South Africa could not have escaped the ravages of its history without him.
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