From www.africanexecutive.com a magazine about development in Africa, published in Kenya

As the person who freed Nelson Mandela from prison, single-handedly dismantled the apartheid system and engineered South Africa’s first democratic elections, de Klerk is a figure of arguably greater moral authority and historic significance than Mandela himself when one considers that the resistance de Klerk faced from his country’s white minority to his decision to surrender the privileges they had once enjoyed was infinitely more daunting -and potentially lethal -than that which greeted the newly-released “Madiba”. 

De Klerk and Mandela

De Klerk and Mandela at an international meeting in 1992, available from www.wikipedia.org

From www.apartheidmuseum.org, a new museum in South Africa.

The groundswell of resistance that flooded the country …as well as the economic strain that South Africa was under, forced the National Party to the negotiating table.

By the end of the 1980s, the government had not been able to crush the forces of resistance. Equally, the resistance movements had not been able to bring the government to its knees. A deadlock had been reached.

In 1989, F W de Klerk became the new leader of the National Party and the President of South Africa. There was a lot of pressure on him to introduce changes. As a result, he took certain steps that would lead South Africa on the path towards democracy.

FW De Klerk in an interview with Candice Gifford in The Sunday Times, July 3, 2005

I agonised over my first parliamentary speech as president, on February 2, 1990 — the second of those important dates. If I announced only the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the ANC, and not the release of all political prisoners and the unbanning of all banned organisations, people would be sceptical. And we wouldn’t achieve the moral high ground we needed. So I decided to make it really powerful.

…One newspaperman wrote afterwards that initially he hadn’t believed it but, leafing through the text of my speech, he shouted: “My God, he’s really doing it!”

I walked into parliament for the ceremonial opening with my former wife. Just before I took the platform, I said to her: “South Africa will never be the same again.” In that speech I broke down the final barriers of apartheid and outlined my proposals to create a united South Africa. I did not announce the details of the release of Nelson Mandela, but I said it would be soon. He and I had first met on December 13, 1989. He was brought to my office under cover of darkness. We avoided politics and talked about history, and we both later wrote we felt we could do business. We recognised an integrity in each other that would form the basis for building a relationship of trust.

…I’m often asked when it was I decided to start implementing the changes. In fact, it was a process that had started in the late 1960s. The National party had long decided to abandon separate development and accept a new vision, of one united South Africa. But the world thought we would hang on to power. My predecessor, Mr Botha, was not keen on developing a dynamic action plan. That was my privilege when I became leader. And I was honoured to stand in front of parliament, in front of all South Africans and the world, and end that morally unjustifiable period in our history.”