The Moral Courage of Fw Deklerk

Ending Apartheid:

The Moral Courage of F.W. de Klerk

On February 2, 1990, the people of South Africa gathered to watch their recently elected president’s address to parliament. The annual event, equivalent to the US President’s State of the Union Address, is delivered every year in Cape Town. The people of South Africa and the world waited in anticipation, expecting that president F.W. de Klerk would announce the release of Nelson Mandela, the hero of the anti-apartheid movement. But the day would not turn out the way those who gathered expected. As expected, Nelson Mandela would be freed after 27 years in prison. What was not expected was that Mandela, by his own choice and for his own safety, would remain in his prison cell on Robben Island. But even more unexpected was the appearance of another hero, one with the exceptional moral courage to dismantle the system of apartheid that was an integral part of his personal and political history. F.W. de Klerk, elected just five months earlier as president of South Africa, would take the opportunity of his first address to parliament to shock the nation and the world by single-handedly dismantling the system of apartheid in South Africa.

Courage, as generally understood, is physical courage. It is the willingness to endure physical or emotional pain. Every day we witness examples of people exhibiting physical courage: rock climbers free-climb sheer cliffs; firemen run into burning buildings; soldiers face enemy fire; citizens step in to stop crimes. These acts of physical courage are certainly to be praised, but are they driven by moral principles? In some cases yes, but in others the answer is no. Acts of physical courage may be principle-driven, but they don’t necessarily have to be. Recently a man broke the speed of sound by freefalling from a helium ballon perched twenty-three miles above the earth. Certainly it takes courage to risk one’s life freefalling through the stratosphere,...