Word: klerk
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...beam. Because of his confinement, he did not get to see his own two youngest daughters grow up, and since his release he has kindled a love affair with his grandchildren. Gradually, as Mandela begins to talk of how his fellow Peace Prize winner, South African President F.W. de Klerk, has ''disappointed'' him during their long, tortuous negotiations toward a new, free, just South Africa, his sunny demeanor fades. Once started on this subject, he has trouble stopping. His voice rises; the smile becomes a scowl. Blacks have been killing other blacks in gruesome ways and growing numbers back...
...have foreseen only a few years earlier. ''Our goal is a new South Africa,'' De Klerk told the audience at the Nobel awards ceremony. From the same platform, Mandela proclaimed, ''We can today even set the dates when all humanity will join together to celebrate one of the outstanding victories of our century.'' That victory was not easily won, and the mutual enmity between Mandela and De Klerk may be due in part to battle fatigue. There is another reason. Both men knew that their collaboration would, if successful, lead to political rivalry between them. De Klerk the incumbent...
...prison for the purpose. The two issued a joint communique committing themselves, in general terms, to peace. A month later, Botha, whose authoritarian style had impeded real progress, was nudged out of office by party leaders. Though he was no one's idea of a revolutionary, De Klerk had carefully watched Botha's struggles...
...accommodate irreconcilable forces and had clearly seen that half measures were hardly going to bring domestic peace and renewed economic growth. De Klerk also had a natural interest in his own political future. In 1985 he had asked two consultants what he should do to succeed Botha; they both told him to soften his image on the necessity of preserving apartheid. This, cautiously, he began to do. Upon taking office, De Klerk announced, ''Our goal is a totally changed South Africa.'' In December 1989 he convened a historic bosberaad, or bush council, at which he won his Cabinet's authorization...
...KLERK: In prison, Mr. Mandela, probably had a perception of leaders of the National Party that was proved wrong when he met us. My first meeting with him in 1989 was fairly relaxed. We came to grips with some fundamental things, basically the need to solve the problem of South Africa through negotiation and recognizing each other as main players who would have to take the lead. MANDELA: I found Mr. De Klerk very positive, very bright, very confident of himself, and ready to accommodate the views I expressed. The National Party had announced a ((reform)) program in which they...