F. W. de Klerk: A complex man with a complex legacy

Ambassador Verwoerd and her former husband Wilhelm Verwoerd with South African President F. W. de Klerk in Dublin, Ireland.

I met F. W. De Klerk for the first time in the late 1980’s. Wilhelm Verwoerd - who would later become my husband - and I had accompanied his grandmother, Betsie (wife of former Prime Minister H. F. Verwoerd), to the VIP lounge at Cape Town airport.

 We were young students at the time and had started to reach out to the ANC in exile. We knew that it carried huge risks, but thought that we were careful enough not to register on the Apartheid government’s radar.

On that day, we were chatting away with Ouma Betsie when the staff in the lounge suddenly became visibly stressed. Another entourage had arrived. It turned out that F. W. de Klerk was also on a flight to Johannesburg. He spotted Ouma Betsie and came over to greet her. He was polite and she was diplomatic as she always was. She then introduced us to De Klerk. I saw his eyes narrowing slightly before he motioned us to a corner away from Ouma Betsie. “Listen,” he said in a low tone.  “We know what you two are up to. Be careful, be very, very careful. This will not turn out well for you.”

With the arrogance of youth, we stared defiantly back at him and then walked away. Although his menacing demeanor shook us slightly, we had little time or respect for this Apartheid minister and his intimidating behaviour.

Three years later, whilst living in Oxford and now in frequent contact with the ANC, we watched in amazement as he announced the unbanning of the ANC and his intention to release Mandela. We knew that at that moment, the country of our birth had changed irreversibly. What utter joy!

 Four years later, as a Member of Parliament for the ANC, I had more - albeit cursory - contact with De Klerk. From his demeanor, it was clear that he struggled with taking a back seat to Mandela - something that had become blatantly obvious during their sharing of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.  It was hard not to conclude that De Klerk was suffering from some form of political buyers’ remorse.  

Eight years later, I had to entertain and accompany Mr. de Klerk (who was now on the global speaker’s circuit) on more than one occasion in Dublin in my capacity as South African Ambassador to Ireland. De Klerk seemed much happier. After what was clearly a complicated and troublesome marriage to Marieke de Klerk, he was now married to Elita. It was touching to see how much in love they were.

It was also clear that De Klerk enjoyed being abroad. Everywhere he went he was revered and glorified. It was obvious that he felt that, whilst abroad, he got the recognition he deserved and a respect that was not forthcoming in South Africa.

However, that seemed to also give him a sense of freedom and entitlement to say things which I don’t believe he would have ever said in South Africa. At public events, he would frequently preface a sentence with: “Now Ambassador Verwoerd and her ANC friends would not agree, but…” and he would then lash out at, for example, at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and/or defend many aspects of the Apartheid system.

These experiences made me question De Klerk’s motivation for “allowing” democracy in South Africa. I increasingly doubted that he had had a change of heart – instead, it seemed indicative of a clever and strategic politician, who did not want to be caught on the wrong side of history.

As Bishop Peter Storey once wrote: “De Klerk was the first literate President of South Africa, his predecessors saw the writing on the wall, but he was the first to understood what it meant.” 

It seems to me that in 1990 De Klerk knew that he had come to a crossroad. He could either go down in history as the man under whose watch Mandela died in prison, or he could become the Gorbachev of the Southern hemisphere (as he would later be called).  

Thankfully for all of us he chose the latter.  

De Klerk’s legacy will undoubtedly be disputed and will remain as complex as the man himself.  

However, whatever motivated him at the time, nothing can take away from the fact that this apartheid-era leader responded to a moment in history in a way that required enormous courage. Even if his name will always be overshadowed by the one he thought was his prisoner - but who turned out to be the liberator of us all - FW de Klerk should rightly be remembered for that moment.

My sympathies go to Elita and his family members.