“It is with the deepest sadness that the FW de Klerk Foundation must announce that former President FW de Klerk died peacefully at his home in Fresnaye earlier this morning following his struggle against mesothelioma cancer. Mr De Klerk was 85 years old,” the statement said.

“He is survived by his wife Elita, his children Jan and Susan, and his grandchildren,” it added.

Frederik Willem de Klerk served as state president of South Africa 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.

Ideologically a conservative and an economic liberal, he led the National Party from 1989 to 1997.