Willem Frederik Duisenberg

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de Klerk, Frederik Willem (b. 18 Mar. 1936). President of South Africa 1989–94 Born in Johannesburg, he entered the National Party (NP) youth organization (Jeugbond), proceeded to study law and became an attorney in Vereeniging in 1961. A Member of Parliament for the NP since 1972, he became a cabinet minister in 1978. As leader of the pivotal Transvaal section of the NP (from 1982), he became leader of the NP following P. W. Botha's stroke on 2 February 1989. He took part in ‘encouraging’ Botha to resign and became President himself on 15 August 1989. A pragmatic politician, he accepted the need to come to an agreement with the Black majority of the country, particularly as long as it was still represented by a unified and relatively moderate leadership.

In a dramatic speech opening the South African Parliament in Cape Town on 2 February 1990, de Klerk announced a radical change in government policy on apartheid, announcing a ‘new South Africa’ based on the principle of racial equality. Almost immediately he ordered the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners (11 February 1990), simultaneously lifting the ban on the PAC, ANC, and the Communist Party. He entered negotiations with Mandela and other Black leaders such as Buthelezi about the transition towards a multi-racial democracy. In 1992 he called a referendum among White South Africans in which two-thirds approved an end to the apartheid system, which was duly implemented. In 1993 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, together with Mandela. In the first free, universal election in South Africa's history, under his leadership the NP won 20.4 per cent of the popular vote, thus becoming the country's second biggest party after the ANC. He achieved this result through managing to appeal to many people of mixed race (‘Coloureds’) and exploiting their fears about the ANC's inexperience in government. With Mbeki he became Deputy Prime Minister, but he subsequently failed to extend the NP's popular base to the Black communities. In 1996, he led his party out of the coalition of ‘National Unity’ with the ANC to become leader of the opposition. In 1997 he retired from politics, stating that he was too implicated in the former apartheid regimes to lead his party to a fresh start.

de Klerk, Frederik Willem (1936– ) South African statesman. Son of a distinguished Afrikaner family, he was born in Johannesburg and practised law until entering politics in 1972. In 1982 he became Minister of Internal Affairs under President P. W. Botha. At that time he became leader of the National Party of Transvaal and pressed the concept of “limited power-sharing” between the races. On becoming President in September 1989 he appeared to move steadily towards the position of accepting universal suffrage, while being threatened from the right by conservative and extremist groups, many of whom were clearly influencing his police force. In 1990 he opened discussion with Nelson MANDELA and the AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS, and his government began to dismantle APARTHEID legislation. He established an all-party Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and in March 1992 won a referendum to continue the reform process. In 1993 a new (transitional) constitution was adopted, which gave all South African adults the right to vote. De Klerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Mandela, in 1993. He served as Second Deputy President of South Africa from 1994, following the country's first multiracial elections, until 1996, when he withdrew his party from the governing coalition. De Klerk stood down as leader of the National Party in 1997.

Willem Frederik Duisenberg 1935–2005, Dutch banker and advocate of European monentary union. He worked (1965–69) as an economist with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., and was subsequently (1970–73) a professor of macroeconomics at the Univ. of Amsterdam. Leaving academia, Duisenberg became known as an inflation-fighter while serving as finance minister (1973–77) under Social Democrat Joop den Uyl, and presided over a flourishing Dutch economy as (1982–97) head of the central bank. In 1998, Duisenberg was appointed the first president of the European Central Bank, serving in that post until 2003. During his tenure he championed the single European currency, overseeing the change in the European Monetary System from individual national monies to the euro.