Former South African president De Klerk withdraws from U.S. rights talk

F. W. de Klerk, South Africa's last white president and the man who repealed apartheid, is pictured in London, March 25, 2004 [Photo: Reuters]

South Africa’s last apartheid president, F.W. de Klerk, has withdrawn from a U.S. seminar about minority rights because he did not want to embarrass himself or his hosts in the current charged racial climate, his foundation said on Sunday.

De Klerk, who was the head of South Africa’s white minority government until 1994, was scheduled to speak on July 1 at an American Bar Association (ABA) virtual event on issues such as minority rights, racism and the rule of law.