Key dates in the life of FW de Klerk
Key dates in the life of South Africa's last apartheid-era president and Nobel Peace
laureate, FW de Klerk, whose time in power marked the end of the racist
apartheid regime.
- March 18, 1936: Frederik Willem de Klerk is born in Johannesburg into a family of Afrikaners, a white ethnic group descended mainly from Dutch colonisers. His father is a top senator who serves briefly as interim president.
- 1954-1958: Studies law at university; joins the Broederbond, a secret and ethnically exclusive Calvinist male Afrikaner organisation that wields huge influence in South Africa.
- 1959: Marries fellow student Marike Willemse, who will be a key ally in his political career and a politician in her own right.
- 1972: Elected to parliament as a member of the National Party that promotes Afrikaner interests in South Africa.
- 1978-1989: Holds a succession of ministerial posts.
- 1989-1994: In office as South Africa's president.
- February 2, 1990: Legalises the banned African National Congress and orders the release of its iconic figurehead Nelson Mandela after 27 years in jail.
- 1991: Ends the apartheid regime in place since 1948.
- 1993: He and Mandela jointly receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in South Africa's "miracle" transition to democracy.
- September 9, 1997: Retires from active politics.
- 1998: Divorces Marike de Klerk and marries Elita Georgiades, the wife of a Greek shipping tycoon with whom he had been having an affair.
- 2000: Sets up the FW de Klerk Foundation to promote inter-community relations.
- December 4, 2001: Marike de Klerk is brutally murdered by a security guard at her home in Cape Town.
- February 2020: Sparks fury when he denies apartheid was a crime against humanity, retracting his comments days later.
- March 18, 2021: Announces he has cancer.
- November 11, 2021: He dies at his home.
