OFM News has caught up with some of the politicians in Central South Africa who worked with De Klerk.

Corn Koteli reports Free State ANC veteran, Pat Matosa, says he served with De Klerk when he joined the National Assembly. De Klerk was serving during the term of former President Nelson Mandela. "We pass our sincere condolences to the De Klerk family, friends, and colleagues. This is a generally painful situation that a man of that calibre has lost his life. He has played a very important role in the affairs of South Africa. We frankly acknowledge the role he has played in changing the political situation in the Republic of South Africa."  

Olebogeng Motse reports ANC veteran, Sekhopi Malebo, who served alongside De Klerk in the fraught Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa), which later became the multi-party negotiation process (MPNP) and resulted in the drafting of the country’s heralded constitution, says the 85-year-old former statesman loved the country of his birth. “I am deeply left with memories of a man who was in great love with his country. Who was humble enough to recognise the historical misdeed of apartheid and sought to rectify it in the manner he did,” says Malebo. The former Free State Transport MEC says De Klerk embraced the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, despite the ramifications thereof.

Blaine Jones reports the Democratic Alliance (DA) also expressed their condolences on the passing of former president De Klerk. Leader of the party, John Steenhuisen, took to Twitter on Thursday, remembering De Klerk. Steenhuisen says De Klerk’s contribution to South Africa’s transition to democracy cannot be overstated. He says De Klerk’s decision, within a year of taking over the presidency from PW Botha in 1989, to unban liberation movements, release Nelson Mandela from prison, lift the ban on political marches and begin the negotiation process towards our first democratic election was a watershed moment. Steenhuisen says De Klerk also took the decision to dismantle the country’s nuclear weapons programme. These things were not considered possible under any of his predecessors.

Steenhuisen says De Klerk continued to play a pivotal - and robust - leadership role in Parliament, as well as in the Government of National Unity, where he served as Deputy President under President Mandela. He continued this work through the FW de Klerk Foundation, which he established in 1999, and which sought to further democracy, accountability and constitutionalism, as well as supporting a number of charities that care for disabled and disadvantaged children.

“The DA extends its deepest condolences to the De Klerk family. May they find strength and comfort in this difficult time. And, rather than dividing our country, may his passing and his memory make us even more determined to work towards a united South Africa,” says Steenhuisen.


OFM News/Corn Koteli, Olebogeng Motse and Blaine Jones