Word: klerk
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...white South Africans had decided that President F.W. De Klerk was not leading the country in the right direction, the proposed general election could have resulted in a victory for the right wing Conservative Party--and a return to apartheid...
Instead, sixty percent of the white minority voted to support de Klerk and continued reform. The Convention for a Democratic South Africa, a multi-racial conference to define South Africa's political future, will now continue to meet and hammer out proposals for a transition government that gives power to non-whites...
...REFORM PROCESS began in early 1990 with Nelson Mandela's release and the unbanning of the ANC and other antiapartheid organizations. De Klerk can be credited for single-handedly changing the ruling National Party's course from pursuing a cosmetic reform program to actively dismantling apartheid...
...Klerk has been, for the most part, an unsung hero, forced to tread a fine line between National Party voters still committed to the maintenance of apartheid, and ANC members, concerned that the reform process will be stalled. He has had a number of factors stacked against him in his crusade...
...long one of the ruling National Party's policy planners. He rebelled against P.W. Botha's autocratic rule and helped move the party toward moderation. "There was always this attitude that the world can go to hell," he says. "Now Afrikaners have become aware of the outside world." De Klerk and Mandela are hoping that all white South Africans have finally, permanently come out of the laager and into the world...