According to an announcement by the FW de Klerk Foundation, South Africa’s last apartheid-era president Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk passed away on Thursday morning at his home in Cape Town. “Former President FW de Klerk died peacefully at his home in Fresnaye earlier this morning following his struggle against mesothelioma cancer,” the statement said. De Klerk, 85, astonished the world when he discarded apartheid and intervened in a peaceful transfer of power to a Black-led government under Nelson Mandela.
