South Africa’s last white president, FW de Klerk, who with Nelson Mandela
oversaw the end of apartheid, has died in Cape Town aged 85.

“Former president FW de Klerk died peacefully at his home in Fresnaye
earlier this morning following his struggle against mesothelioma cancer,”
the FW de Klerk Foundation said in a statement.

De Klerk, who jointly won the Nobel peace prize with Mandela, leaves
behind a complicated legacy in a country still scarred by the consequences
of the brutal institutionalised system of white-minority rule that he
helped usher out.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/11/fw-de-klerk-the-last-president-of-apartheid-south-africa-dies-aged-85

As well as ending apartheid, De Klerk, who as a minister had helped uphold
white-minority rule, also helped dismantle South Africa’s nuclear weapons
programme.

South Africa’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said he and the
government were saddened, adding that De Klerk had played a “key role in
ushering in democracy” in the country.

A lawyer whose political inclinations were conservative, De Klerk was born
in Johannesburg into an influential Afrikaner family. He went on to serve
in the white-minority government of PW Botha as an MP in the National
party.

While many white South Africans and senior anti-apartheid figures –
including Archbishop Desmond Tutu – believed he would continue with
Botha’s racist policies when in power himself, De Klerk, concerned about
growing racial violence, including ethnic violence between Xhosa and Zulus
encouraged by the state, began moving against the apartheid system.

After becoming president in 1989, he allowed anti-apartheid protests and
removed restrictions on some banned political parties, and – like his
predecessor – met secretly with Mandela.

The turning point would come on 2 February 1990, five months after his
election, when in a speech to parliament De Klerk announced that Mandela,
the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC), would be
released from jail, where he had been for 27 years. The announcement
electrified a country that for decades had been scorned and placed under
sanctions by much of the world for its brutal system of racial
discrimination.

The speech marked the official end of segregation policies and the start
of the negotiations that led to a constitutional democracy with equal
rights for all South Africans.

Nine days later, in a historic moment that would reverberate around the
globe, Mandela would walk free from Victor Verster prison, although De
Klerk would continue to head South Africa’s white-minority government
until 1994, when Mandela’s ANC swept to power in national elections.

De Klerk was conscious of the risks involved. “There is an element of
uncertainty, obviously, with regard to everything which lies in the
future,” he told reporters the day after his speech, and violence would
continue throughout the transition period.

Following the end of white-minority rule, he would serve as deputy
president until 1996.

In later life, De Klerk would be overshadowed by the towering figure of
Mandela. “Sometimes, Mr De Klerk does not get the credit that he
deserves,” Tutu told David Frost in an interview in 2012.

The relationship between De Klerk and Mandela, as the former admitted
during his Nobel peace prize acceptance speech, could be fractious and was
marked by bitter disagreements. Mandela accused De Klerk of allowing the
killings of black South Africans during the political transition. De Klerk
said Mandela could be extremely stubborn and unreasonable.

While some white South African’s accused De Klerk of “giving the country
away”, many black South Africans would continue to view him with suspicion
and his legacy would remain contested throughout his life, not least over
accusations of involvement in state-sponsored atrocities committed on his
watch, claims he always denied.

“If we had not changed in the manner we did,” De Klerk said in an
interview with the Observer 11 years ago, “South Africa would be
completely isolated. The majority of people in the world would be intent
on overthrowing the government. Our economy would be nonexistent – we
would not be exporting a single case of wine and South African planes
would not be allowed to land anywhere. Internally, we would have the
equivalent of civil war.”

De Klerk’s judgment on apartheid too was softer than many subsequently
would have liked with many inside the country seeing him as a symbol of
the failure of white South Africa to acknowledge the full horrors of the
system and to bring perpetrators to justice.

That was underlined last year in a controversy over a television interview
in which he was seen to be quibbling about whether the crimes of apartheid
should be seen as “crimes against humanity”. He later expressed his regret
for “the confusion, anger, and hurt” his remarks might have caused.

The FW de Klerk Foundation had announced in June that he had been
diagnosed with a cancer that affects the lining of the lungs.

His death, perhaps inevitably, has been greeted with mixed responses.
Julius Malema, the leader of the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party,
who had accused him of being “a murderer” during a visit to the country’s
parliament last year, tweeted: “Thank you God,” followed by five dancing
emojis.

The former opposition Democratic Alliance party leader Tony Leon tweeted:
“Farewell FW de Klerk. Like Mikhail Gorbachev, he reformed the system he
inherited in 1990. And if he had not relinquished power in 1994, likely SA
would be Syria or Venezuela today.”

The former president is survived by his wife, Elita, two children, Susan
and Jan, and several grandchildren.

### - as you know, have always considered what happened in s.africa to be
a blueprint for what's prolly (or likely then) gonna eventually happen to
the rest of us too at some point, s.africa in that sense being a mini
(i.e., microcosmic) self-contained version of what's basically wrong with
the rest of the world as well...

thus 'their' problems were actually our problems too! were merely an
extension of them, in miniature, that not only came to a head/peaked there
first but which, rather amazingly, also went-for a novel solution that no
one really saw coming?? a completely unexpected life/nation-saving choice
that also incidentally provides an 'out' for the rest of us to follow too
as well, if we want!

i.e., what they did 'voluntarily' in s.africa (i.e., without a war) was
virtually unimaginable by our (and thus their) standards!?

to the point we can't even (currently anyway heh) 'imagine' ourselves
choosing/doing something similar in a similar situation?? (lol i 'still'
can't imagine/model a scenario wherein that could ever happen except by
say civil war in the case of america, and/or via global war in the case of
the rest of the planet? wot: the lions will just one day lay down and
'give' themselves to the lambs and that's the end of it, a new era dawns
just like that??? lol riiiight... and yet that's almost exactly what
happened in s.africa!? so like wow! there's actually hope for us all yet!)

and because by rights, by the normal flow of more likely/predictable
events & things in wallyworld i mean, s.africa *should* have indeed
ended-up as a smoldering heap/ruin! (as-is likely to happen to the rest of
us because one way or another we're all in the exact same boat that led up
to it! ours not having come to a head yet!)

and because de klerk was even WORSE (more far-right) than trumpty-dumpty
ever was! (although, in truth, heh, we can't be too sure of that coz we
never actually gots to see trumpty really fly before he gots shot down? so
if'n he ever does gets back in we might even get to see it, just hopefully
not coz that's scary lol) and yet he (de klerk) and mandela were both
instrumental in turning a completely hopeless situation around, even if it
meant the ruling white minority party there stepping down (perforce on a
global scale this would represent the 20% wealthy ruling classes) and
eventually disappearing outta the picture altogether, first as a minority
group, then totally altogether in-favour of a newly born peoples democracy!

directly BECAUSE of which (and this is the important/remarkable part) they
SURVIVED intact!

and they DIDN'T even have to mash up the place??

well there's a goddamn miracle right there!

something 'intelligent' happened in s.africa!!!

they chose LIFE instead of destruction...

quite impressive actually :)