De Klerk launched his parliamentary career in as member for the right-wing mining town of Vereeniging and was for several years minister in charge of a schooling system that spent 10 times more on White children than on Blacks. He challenged then-finance minister Barend du Plessis in the party election of a successor to ailing apartheid hardliner P.
Botha and then ousted Botha from the presidency in a cabinet coup a few months later. Black and white analysts said de Klerk was too cautious in moving against security force right-wingers suspected of fomenting violence and of being out of touch and ill-informed about the horrific gun and spear attacks in Black communities.
After the fall of apartheid, his National Party shared power in a "Government of National Unity" in which he served as a deputy president. But the relationship between de Klerk, a chain-smoking whisky drinker, and the austere Mandela was often strained, and De Klerk pulled out of the government in , saying the ANC no longer prized his advice or guidance. He retired from active politics in and later apologised for the miseries of apartheid before Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Daily newsletter Receive essential international news every morning. Take international news everywhere with you! De Klerk's foundation said he had died peacefully at his home in Cape Town on Thursday morning after a battle with mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the tissue lining the lungs.
His widow Elita and family will announce funeral arrangements in due course, it said. The foundation of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a veteran of the struggle against white minority rule and seen by many as the nation's moral conscience, said de Klerk had "occupied an historic but difficult space in South Africa".
He had seen the necessity of change and "demonstrated the will to act on it," it added. John Steenhuisen, leader of the Democratic Alliance DA , South Africa's second biggest party after the ANC, said de Klerk's success in bringing most white voters with him over the need to abolish apartheid helped ensure the transition was peaceful.
The DA is the main rival of the ANC but has struggled to shed its image as a party of white privilege. Julius Malema, who heads the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters EFF , the country's third biggest political party, was much more critical, saying de Klerk should be referred to not as a "former president" but as a "former apartheid president".
Though long retired from active politics, de Klerk prompted anger among supporters of then President Jacob Zuma in when he accused them and their leader of seeking to advance their personal interests and of endangering democracy. Decade Office Was Assumed Click or tap a decade to update the map. Click again to reset. By the Numbers Length of Terms Click or tap the column names to re-sort the data.
Click or tap an entry for details. Years in Office. Cameroon - Paul Biya. Republic of Congo - Denis Sassou Nguesso. Uganda - Yoweri Museveni. Zimbabwe - Robert Mugabe. Sudan - Omar al-Bashir. Eritrea - Isaias Afwerki. Gambia - Yahya Jammeh. Algeria - Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Rwanda - Paul Kagame. DRC - Joseph Kabila. Seychelles - James Michel.
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