SPEAKER ORATEUR: FW DE KLERK

Frederik Willem De Klerk attended the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and graduated in 1958 with BA and LLB degrees.

During his university years he was actively involved in student affairs.

Mr De Klerk joined a firm of attorneys in Vereeniging and soon took the lead in numerous community activities.

In January 1973 he was offered the Chair of Administrative Law at Potchefstroom University.

This he had to decline, however since he had been elected as Member of Parliament for Vereeniging in November 1972.

He was appointed to the Cabinet in 1978.

He was responsible for the following portfolios consecutively:

    Posts and Telecommunications and Social Welfare and Pensions
    Sport and Recreation
    Mining and Environmental Planning
    Mineral and Energy Affairs
    Home Affairs, as well as the Civil Service, by delegation of the Prime Minister
    National Education, the portfolio which he held up to his election as State President

On 1 July 1985 Mr De Klerk became Chairman of the Ministers' Council in the House of Assembly. He became Leader of the House of Assembly on 1 December 1986.

On 15 August 1989 Mr De Klerk was elected and sworn in as Acting State President of South Africa. On 15 September 1989 he was unanimously elected as State President. He was inaugurated as South Africa's second Executive State President in Pretoria on 20 September 1989.

During his presidency Mr De Klerk initiated and presided over the constitutional transformation of South Africa. After South Africa's first universal democratic elections on 27 April 1994, Mr De Klerk was appointed as Executive Deputy President in South Africa's Government of National Unity.

He held this post until June, 1996 when his Party withdrew from the Government of National Unity. From then until his retirement from active politics in 1997, Mr De Klerk was the Leader of the Official Opposition.