The last President of the South African Republic (South Africa) of the apartheid period Frederick Villem de Clerk left life at the age of 85, reports Reuters with reference to the representative of the De Clerk Foundation.
According to available data, a politician who ruled South Africa in 1989-1994 and freed Nelson Mandela from prison, died in his house located in the suburbs of Cape Town. “The ex-president de Clerk peacefully died in his house in the city of Fresn, the current morning after a long fight against the cancer,” said the representative of the Fund.
In March 2021, the final dismantling of the apartheid politician said that he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer tissue mesothelioma. It is known that his son Villem died from the same disease in 2020.
Frederick Villem de Clerk, who held the position of President South Africa since August 1989 to May 1994, completed the dismantling of the apartheid system and became the last white president of the country. In 1990, he issued a decree, which recognized the lawful activity of the Party African National Congress (ANC), which further led to the release of political force leader sentenced to life imprisonment, Nelson Mandela.
In the life of a politician, together with Mandela, became the laureate of the Nobel Prize of the World “for work on the peaceful cessation of the apartheid regime, and for the preparation of the foundation for the new Democratic South African Republic.” After in 1994, Mandela was elected to the presidential position, de Clerk took the post of vice president of the country. He performed the responsibilities assigned to him until 1997, and then left the policy.