South Africa
FW de Klerk cremation and funeral held Sunday─── 08:21 Sun, 21 Nov 2021
South Africa’s last apartheid president, FW de Klerk, will be laid to rest on Sunday in what his foundation says will be a private service.
The FW de Klerk Foundation earlier announced that no media would be allowed to attend the cremation and funeral service that will be held at an undisclosed venue.
De Klerk succumbed to cancer on the 11th of November.
He was 85 years old. The Presidency says government will host a State Memorial Service, at a future date, in remembrance of De Klerk for his role as former Deputy President.
The De Klerk Foundation released a video on social media in which former deputy president FW de Klerk again apologises to South Africans for apartheid in an emotional last message.
In the clip, de Klerk apologises unreservedly for apartheid and acknowledges the hurt and wrongs caused by the system.
Professor of Journalism at Wits University, Anton Harber, “I have strong recollections of the brutality, the horrors, the censorship, the long periods of detention, the killings and the assassinations that happened while de Klerk was in government. So, one looks at his death with mixed feelings. It’s clearly a complicated and mixed heritage that he leaves behind him.”
