South Africa's last white president Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk died on Thursday morning at his home in Cape Town, the FW de Klerk Foundation said in a statement.
"Former President FW de Klerk died peacefully at his home in Fresnaye earlier this morning following his struggle against mesothelioma cancer," the statement said.
The 85-year-old served as president from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996.
As South Africa's last head of state from the era of white-minority rule, he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage.
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Born in Johannesburg, South Africa to an influential Afrikaner family, de Klerk studied at Potchefstroom University before pursuing a career in law.
Joining the National Party, to which he had family ties, he was elected to parliament and sat in the white-minority government of P W Botha, holding a succession of ministerial posts.
As a minister, he supported and enforced apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged white South Africans.
After Botha resigned in 1989, de Klerk replaced him, first as leader of the National Party and then as State President.
