de Klerk, F. W. (Frederik Willem de Klerk), 1936-, South African statesman, president of South Africa (1989-94). Holding ministerial posts from 1978, he became (1989) acting president when P. W. Botha resigned. Recognizing that black resistance to the white power monopoly would only increase, de Klerk, despite his conservative reputation, began the process of ending apartheid, lifting the ban on antiapartheid parties and releasing Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990. In 1991 he obtained the repeal of all remaining apartheid laws and called for the drafting of a new constitution, leading to the approval of a multiracial transitional government in 1993. De Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993. Mandela succeeded de Klerk as president in 1994, and de Klerk became one of two vice presidents in a government of national unity. Two years later the National Party withdrew from the government to form an official opposition, and in 1997 De Klerk retired from politics.

(born March 18, 1936, Johannesburg, S.Af.) President of South Africa (1989–94). He brought the apartheid system to an end and negotiated a transition to majority rule. Replacing P.W. Botha as leader of the National Party and president, de Klerk quickly moved to release all important political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, and to lift the ban on the African National Congress. He and Mandela jointly received the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. Following the country's first universal suffrage elections in 1994, Mandela became president and de Klerk was appointed second deputy president. He retired from politics in 1997.

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