Faith Nyasuguta
The Nobel Peace Prize medal awarded to South Africa’s last apartheid leader, Frederik Willem de Klerk, went missing from his Cape Town home half a year ago, his foundation reported on Wednesday.
The ex-president received the prize in 1993 alongside anti-apartheid icon and freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, for his key role in ushering South Africa into democracy.
The medal, made of recycled gold and weighing 18 carats, was stolen from his home in a burglary in April.
“I can confirm that the Nobel Peace Prize belonging to FW de Klerk was stolen from his home earlier this year,” Brenda Steyn, the foundation’s legacy manager told news outlets.
DIED AT 85
The former head of state passed away in November last year aged 85 following a cancer diagnosis.
Mandela and De Klerk were jointly awarded the prestigious laurel in Oslo, Norway, “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa“.
De Klerk spearheaded South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule to the first multi-racial elections in 1994 after freeing Mandela from prison in 1990.
Following this, Mandela then became South Africa’s first black president after his African National Congress party won the first democratic election.
De Klerk’s widow Elita Georgiades suspects an ex-house employee who worked for the family for seven years was behind the theft, said Steyn.
The theft was reported to Cape Town police.
