FORMER PRESIDENT FW DE KLERK ON THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF NELSON MANDELA'S RELEASE FROM PRISON
11 February 1990 was certainly one of the turning points in South Africa's modern history.
Together with the announcements of 2 February 1990 it signalled to South Africa and to the world that we had changed course - away from growing confrontation and conflict and toward the possibility of building a new non-racial constitutional democracy.
I am sure that Nelson Mandela would be proud of our many achievements since then:
We are a functioning multi-party constitutional democracy with a strong Bill of Rights and independent courts.
We have freed ourselves from the injustice and humiliation of apartheid.