F. W. de Klerk

De Klerk unbanned the ANC, released Nelson Mandela in 1990, won a whites-only referendum in 1992 to continue negotiations and handed power to Mandela after the 1994 election. The settlement came out of years of sanctions, internal resistance and economic decline as well as his own choices. He shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela. His reputation is contested in South Africa over political violence by security forces during the transition and his reluctance to call apartheid a crime against humanity.