On 2 February 1990, South African President FW de Klerk delivered a speech at the opening of the 1990 session of the Parliament of South Africa.
He announced sweeping reforms that marked the beginning of the negotiated transition from apartheid to constitutional democracy. The reforms included the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC), The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and other anti-apartheid organizations, the release of political prisoners -including Nelson Mandela- the end of the state of emergency and a moratorium on the death penalty.
FW de Klerk’s actions and speech marked the official end of segregation policies and the official start of the negotiations that led to a constitutional democracy with equal rights for all South Africans.
2021 Human Rights Report Card
The FW de Klerk Foundation takes pleasure in presenting its annual Human Rights Report Card indicating where, in our opinion, South Africa has been making progress with regard to human rights and where it has been regressing.
2021 marks 30 years since CODESA and a constitutional era underpinned by the values of human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms; non-racialism and non-sexism; supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law; and a multi-party democracy resulting in government that is accountable, responsive and transparent.
As a result, South Africa is without doubt a better place to call home. However, even though it is a functioning multi-party democracy, extreme levels of corruption as well as the growing failure within South Africa to fully appreciate and adhere to all of the aforementioned constitutional values - especially those of accountability, responsiveness and openness, but also non-racialism and non-sexism - is having a direct impact on the realisation of human rights and freedoms.
These fundamental rights - as with constitutional values - are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible, meaning that the failure to adhere to one will continue to affect the realisation of other rights going forward into 2021.
STATEMENT: THE HEALTH OF FORMER PRESIDENT FW DE KLERK
There have been extensive media reports that Mr De Klerk’s health “is rapidly deteriorating”. This is not so. There has been no discernible deterioration in his health since he was diagnosed in March with mesothelioma - a cancer that affects the lining of the lungs. He is now considering the continuation of the course of immunotherapy that he has been following for the past two months.
Mr De Klerk attended a meeting of the FW de Klerk Foundation Board yesterday - and comes into his office three or four times a week. He and his wife, Elita, hope to travel to Greece for a holiday as soon as COVID regulations permit.
Issued by the FW de Klerk Foundation
8 June 2021
The FW de Klerk Foundation 
