Frederik Willem de Klerk (born in 1936) was a South African
National Party politician, president from 1989. Trained as a
lawyer, he entered the South African parliament in 1972. He
served in the cabinets of B. J. Vorster and P. W. Botha
1978-1989, and in February and August 1989 successively replaced
Botha as National Party leader and state president. Projecting
himself as a pragmatic conservative who sought gradual reform of
the apartheid system, he won the September 1989 elections for
his party, but with a reduced majority. In February 1990 he
ended the ban on the African National Congress opposition
movement and released its effective leader, Nelson Mandela. In
February 1990 he ended the ban on the African National Congress
opposition movement and r eleased its effective leader, Nelson
Mandela. In February 1991 de Klerk promised the end of all
apartheid legislation and a new multiracial constitution, and by
June of the same year had repealed alt racially discriminating
laws. In March 1992 a nationwide, whi