“apologised for the pain and the indignity that apartheid has brought to persons of colour in South Africa”
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F. W. de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk was a South African politician who served as the final state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996. As South Africa's last head of state from the era of white-minority rule, he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Ideologically a social conservative and an economic liberal, he…
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politics · President of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 · politician · lawyer · minister · also F. W. de Klerk, Frederik Willem de Klerk, Frederick W. De Klerk, Frederick De Klerk, F W de Klerk, FW de Klerk
Born 18 March 1936 · Died 11 November 2021 · Q151813
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2026· 6 entries
“s white Afrikaner population had many reasons to dislike Rhodes but”
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“holding perpetrators accountable, irrespective of how long ago the crime was committed, is essential to stamping out impunity and preventing future atrocities”
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“he keeps an ear to the ground and is sensitive to the slightest tremors”
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“never formed part of a political school of thought, and I deliberately kept out of the cliques and foments of the enlightened and conservative factions in the party. If the policy I propounded was ultra-conservative, then that was the policy; it was not necessarily I who was ultra-conservative. I saw my role in the party as that of an interpreter of the party”
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“The silver thread throughout my career was my advocacy of National Party policy in all its various formulations. I refrained from adjusting that policy or adapting it to my own liking or convictions. I analyzed it as it was formulated, to the letter.”
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2021· 17 entries
NPR: The complicated legacy of F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid-era president
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MarketWatch: F. W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid president, dies
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The Washington Post: F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies at 85
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Newsweek: F.W. De Klerk, South Africa Leader Who Helped End Apartheid, Dies Aged 85
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NPR: F. W. de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid president, dies at 85
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Yahoo: South Africa’s last apartheid president F. W. de Klerk dies
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Benzinga.com: F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's Last Apartheid-Era President, Dies At 85
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Died 2021-11-11.
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“If we dwell on real or imagined sins of the past, we shall never be able to find one another in the present, nor shall we be able to work together on building the future.”
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“History has placed a tremendous responsibility on the shoulders of this country's leadership, namely the responsibility of moving our country away from the current course of conflict and confrontation... The hope of millions of South Africans is fixed on us. The future of southern Africa depends on us. We dare not waver or fail.”
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“We're not doing what we do because of sanctions. We're doing what we do because we believe it is right.”
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“I'm certain about my decision [to divorce you]. Stop hoping.”
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“I'm a Christian. I'm a South African. I'm an Afrikaner. I'm a lawyer. I love my country, and I think that this country has a great future. In that sense of the word, I`m a practical idealist.”
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“Here at the crossroads of our history, we need to turn our backs on the past.”
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“There are powers that are trying to manipulate our country's history by trying to portray it as dark, suppressive and unfair... Yes, we have made mistakes. Yes, we have often sinned and we don't deny this. But that we were evil, malignant and mean–to that we say "no!”
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“I have great sympathy with America. It's very, it's very tough to be the only remaining superpower in the world.”
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“You have Palestinians living in Israel with full political rights. You don’t have discriminatory laws against them, I mean not letting them swim on certain beaches or anything like that. I think it's unfair to call Israel an apartheid state. If Kerry did so, I think he made a mistake.”
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2020· 2 entries
De Klerk told an interviewer that "the idea that apartheid was a crime against humanity was and remains an agitprop project initiated by the Soviets and their ANC/SACP allies to stigmatize white South Africans by associa
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“the idea that apartheid was a crime against humanity was and remains an agitprop project initiated by the Soviets and their ANC/SACP allies to stigmatize white South Africans by associating them with genuine crimes against humanity.”
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2019· 1 entry
AFP Fact Check rated the claim “Thuli Madonsela poses with F.W. de Klerk in an apartheid-era flag dress” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
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2015· 1 entry
De Klerk wrote to The Times newspaper in the UK criticising a campaign to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College, Oxford
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2013· 1 entry
“He was a great unifier and a very, very special man in this regard beyond everything else he did. This emphasis on reconciliation was his biggest legacy.”
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2009· 1 entry
“confound the prophets of doom”
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2008· 1 entry
Repeated in a speech that "despite all the negatives facing South Africa, he was very positive about the country"
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2006· 1 entry
Underwent surgery for a malignant tumor in his colon
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2005· 1 entry
De Klerk quit the New National Party and sought a new political home after the NNP merged with the ruling ANC
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2004· 1 entry
An organisation which works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of
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2002· 3 entries
Awarded Order of Mapungubwe in Gold (2002).
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It made a more limited accusation: that de Klerk had failed to give full disclosure about events that took place during his presidency and that in view of his knowledge about the Khotso House bombing, his statement that
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Following the murder of his former wife, the manuscript of her own autobiography, A Place Where the Sun Shines Again, was submitted to de Klerk, who urged the publishers to remove a chapter dealing with his infidelity
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2000· 1 entry
De Klerk established the pro-peace FW de Klerk Foundation of which he was the chairman
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1999· 2 entries
De Klerk and his wife of 38 years, Marike de Klerk, were divorced following the discovery of his affair with Elita Georgiades, then the wife of Tony Georgiades, a Greek shipping tycoon who had allegedly given de Klerk an
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His autobiography, The Last Trek – A New Beginning, was published
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1997· 2 entries
De Klerk retired from active politics and thereafter lectured internationally
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De Klerk was offered the Harper Fellowship at Yale Law School
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1994· 2 entries
De Klerk was elected to the American Philosophical Society
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Career landmark: Deputy President of South Africa (1994–1996).
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1993· 3 entries
Awarded Nobel Peace Prize (1993).
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Awarded honorary doctorate of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1993).
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Publicly apologised for apartheid's harmful effects
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1992· 1 entry
Awarded Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation (1992).
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1991· 1 entry
Awarded Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize (1991).
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1990· 1 entry
De Klerk gave orders to end South Africa's nuclear weapons programme; the process of nuclear disarmament was essentially completed in 1991
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1989· 2 entries
Career landmark: State President of South Africa (1989–1994).
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De Klerk replaced him, first as leader of the NP and then as State President
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1988· 1 entry
With the support of Dutch billionaire Frans Lurvink and former Dutch Foreign Minister Hans van den Broek
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1984· 1 entry
Career landmark: Minister of Education (1984–1989).
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1982· 1 entry
Career landmark: Minister of Home Affairs of South Africa (1982–1985).
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1981· 1 entry
De Klerk was awarded the Decoration for Meritorious Service for his work in the government
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1979· 1 entry
Career landmark: Minister of Energy (1979–1982).
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1978· 2 entries
Career landmark: Minister of Social Development (1978–1978).
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Career landmark: Minister of Sport and Recreation (1978–1979).
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1976· 1 entry
That he observed what he later described as the pervasive racism of US society, later noting that he "saw more racial incidents in one month there than in South Africa in a year"
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1975· 1 entry
Prime Minister John Vorster predicted that de Klerk would one day become leader of South Africa
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1972· 1 entry
His alma mater offered him a chair in its law faculty, which he accepted
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1962· 1 entry
Set up his own law partnership in Vereeniging, Transvaal, which he built into a successful business over ten years
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1959· 1 entry
When de Klerk was 23 and his wife was 22
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1936· 1 entry
Born 1936-03-18.
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