The Last Trek-A New Beginning: The Autobiography Book

On 27 April 1994, millions of South Africans stood in mile-long queues for hours to cast their vote in the country's first democratic election. F W de Klerk, the last apartheid president, must have known his party would lose and that he was effectively handing the power of the volk (nation) to the African National Congress and its leader Nelson Mandela. This appears to be de Klerk's motivation for writing his autobiography--to show himself as the country's "great reformer". It is also an attempt to reassure the volk that this is not the end for them, but merely a fresh challenge. De Klerk was brought up as an Afrikaner nationalist and his view of the world was shaped by racism. He unapologetically tells how, as a young man, he was impressed with Dr Hendrik Verwoerd's plans to create separate black homelands and was relieved when Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. Throughout the time he was a nationalist MP, Minister and later president, de Klerk insists he did not know about his government's reign of terror--the massacres and death squads. For a "compassionate reformer" and lawyer, it seems unbelievable that he did not try harder to find out if the allegations were true. He does apologise for apartheid crimes even though he urges they should be seen in context of the Cold War, his political background and in comparison with other nations. A weak apology indeed. The Last Trek: A New Beginning offers interesting insights into the mind of F W de Klerk, the son of a cabinet minister and the nephew of the prime minister, Hans Strijdom. Its most interesting sub-plot, however, is de Klerk's description of how his relationship with Mandela deteriorated and finally led to the collapse of the coalition government--an event that angered de Klerk's colleagues because it caused a rift in the party and eroded international confidence in multi-racial government. De Klerk retired from politics in 1997.Read More