F.W. de Klerk – Frederik Willem de Klerk was born in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa on the 18th March 1936. His parents Jan de Klerk and Corrie Coetzer both originated from families with deeply ingrained traditional white conservative views. His great-grandfather and grandfather, like his father before him were all heavily involved in political life.
F.W. de Klerk attended High School in Krugersdorp and went on to graduate in 1958 from Potchefstroom University with a BA and LL.B (cum laude) and then practiced law in Vereeniging, Gauteng (previously Transvaal). He married Marike Willemse in 1959. Their marriage that produced 2 sons and a daughter, lasted 38 years and in 1998 ended in divorce.
In 1972 F.W. de Klerk was elected to parliament representing Vereeniging. In the government of President P.W. Botha, de Klerk held a number of ministerial positions, became leader of the Transvaal National Party in 1982, in 1986 became the House Leader and in 1989 de Klerk succeeded P.W. Both as leader of the National Party. In September of that year he was elected State President of the Republic of South Africa.
Within a short time F.W. de Klerk introduced his reform policy with the intention of creating a climate that would bring about negotiations that would end the Apartheid Policy of the National Party and enable a policy of “one man one vote” by instituting free democratic elections.
He lifted the ban on the ANC and various other movements of liberation and released Nelson Mandela from his 27 year imprisonment. De Klerk proceeded to work together with Mandela to bring about the end of white minority rule by agreeing to a timetable of change to a democratic non racial state.
Frederik Willem de Klerk and Nelson Mandela were joint recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993. In 2002 F.W. de Klerk was awarded South Africa’s highest honour – The Order of Mapungubwe in Gold for outstanding Reconciliation and Nation Building.