South Africa's Last White President Feared Democracy, Says Prime Minister
NDTV
Frederik Willem de Klerk, credited with supervising a peaceful transition from white-minority rule in South Africa to a Black-majority government led by Nelson Mandela, died last month.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday described the late FW de Klerk as "brave" for defying his party to negotiate an end to white minority rule but also recalled the horrors of the regime he led and his fear of democratic change.
Frederik Willem de Klerk, credited with supervising a peaceful transition from white-minority rule in South Africa to a Black-majority government led by Nelson Mandela, died last month at the age of 85 after battling cancer.
"In taking such a bold step, F.W. de Klerk went against many in his own party, and against many white South Africans," Ramaphosa said on Sunday at a state memorial service for the former leader.
De Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993 for his role in scrapping apartheid, but many Black South Africans suspect he was motivated entirely by pragmatism rather than a change of heart, given that the government was internationally isolated and facing the prospect of civil war.