JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's last white president Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk, who negotiated a peaceful transfer of power to a Black-led government under Nelson Mandela, died on Thursday aged 85 after a battle with cancer, his foundation said.
De Klerk won praise worldwide for his role in scrapping apartheid and he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993. The following year Mandela won South Africa's first multi-racial elections with his African National Congress (ANC).
In a message of condolence, President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute to de Klerk's "vital role" in South Africa's transition to democracy in the 1990s. "He took the courageous decision (as president) to unban political parties, release political prisoners and enter into negotiations with the liberation movement amid severe pressure to the contrary from many in his political constituency," Ramphosa said.
Mandela's foundation said in a separate statement that de Klerk would "forever be linked to Nelson Mandela in the annals of South African history". However, de Klerk's role in the transition from minority white rule to democracy remains highly contested.
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