Former State President FW De Klerk, spoke at the annual conference of his FW De Klerk Foundation. The foundation hosts a conference every year to commemorate his speech on 2 February 1990 in which he announced the release of Nelson Mandela.

De Klerk’s announcement on 2 February 1990, in which he announced the release of Mandela as well as the unbanning of the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations paved the way for negotiations which led to the first democratic elections in 1994.

In 1993 De Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace for their roles in negotiating South Africa’s peaceful transition to democracy.

De Klerk was South Africa’s last apartheid State President and after the first democratic elections in 1994 served as a Deputy President to Nelson Mandela in South Africa’s first democratically elected Parliament.