FW de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid leader who freed Nelson Mandela, dies at 85

De Klerk released Mandela, his subsequent successor, from prison and laboriously negotiated a transition to democracy, ending a decades-long segregationist system that kept South Africa’s White minority in power over the Black majority for generations.The two men shared the peace prize in 1993 for their work to end the policy, but de Klerk remained a divisive figure in South Africa long after he left politics.De Klerk died at his home in Fresnaye from mesothelioma cancer, the FW de Klerk Foundation said Thursday. A deeply conservative politician whose party had long supported apartheid, de Klerk surprised his political clan and became an unlikely agent of change in South Africa during his five-year rule of the country. He effectively announced the beginnings of a new country in one historic speech at the state opening of Parliament in 1990, revealing to a stunned nation that he would free Mandela, legalize anti-apartheid groups, end a national state of emergency and negotiate to end racial inequality in the country.De Klerk’s political transformation, sparked by worsening racial tensions and the impending possibility of civil war, led him to be cast as a “traitor” by some conservative lawmakers. De Klerk nonetheless created a complicated legacy both during his time in power and after his retirement.In the same 2012 interview, de Klerk caused anger by equivocating on whether apartheid was a morally repugnant policy. “I can only say that in a qualified way … there were many aspects which are morally indefensible,” he said.Last year, his foundation issued an apology after de Klerk claimed that apartheid was not a crime against humanity during an interview with South African public broadcaster SABC.He told CNN he and Mandela were “close friends” by 2012. “There is no animosity left between us. Historically, there was,” he said.”He still has an aura around him. He’s truly a very dignified and a very admirable person,” de Klerk added, shortly before Mandela’s death the next year.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that “De Klerk will be remembered for his steely courage and realism in doing what was manifestly right and leaving South Africa a better country,” adding he was “saddened” by his death.Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin added that “his vision, along with Nelson Mandela, moulded a new South Africa.”CNN’s Sarah Dean and Sharon Braithwaite contributed reporting