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November 11, 2021

F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's Last Apartheid President, Dies at 85
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F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid-era president, has died at
the age of 85. As a government minister, de Klerk defended and enforced
segregation and white minority rule. But in 1990, facing intense
pressure both within South Africa and from the international
anti-apartheid movement, then-President de Klerk dismantled the
apartheid system and ordered the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.
Mandela became the nation's first Black president in 1994, and de Klerk
served as his vice president. The pair were jointly awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1993.


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