Former South African president to speak at Missouri S&T

Posted by
On August 22, 2008

Missouri S&T will present a lecture by former South African president
and Nobel Peace Prize winner F.W. de Klerk as part of its Remmers Special
Artist/Lecturer Series on Monday, Oct. 20. de Klerk will be the 29th presenter
in the series.

de Klerk’s lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose
Building, 705 W. 10th St., in Rolla. The lecture is free and open to the
public, but tickets will be required.

Beginning Sept. 29, tickets will be available to Missouri S&T students
with a valid student I.D. Tickets will be available to Missouri S&T faculty
and staff beginning Oct. 1, with a valid Missouri S&T I.D. On Oct. 3,
tickets will be made available to the general public.

Tickets will be available between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the Leach Theatre Box
Office, located in Castleman Hall. For ticket information, please call (573)
341-4219.

Frederik Willem de Klerk served as state president of South Africa from 1989
to 1994, initiating and presiding over the inclusive negotiations that led to
the dismantling of apartheid and the adoption of South Africa’s first fully
democratic constitution in December 1993.

After leading the National Party to the second place in South Africa’s first
fully representative general election of April 27, 1994, de Klerk was
inaugurated as one of South Africa’s two executive deputy presidents. He served
until the end of June 1996, when the party, under his leadership, decided to
withdraw from the Government of National Unity. He was leader of the Official
Opposition until his retirement from active party politics on Sept. 9,
1997.

de Klerk has received numerous national and international honors and
honorary doctorates. In 1981, he was awarded the South African Decoration for
Meritorious Service. In 1992, he received the Prix du Courage Internationale
(The Prize for Political Courage) and the Prince of Asturias Prize in Spain and
was co-recipient of the UNESCO Houphouet-Boigny Prize. In July 1993, together
with Nelson Mandela, de Klerk received the Philadelphia Peace Prize. On Dec. 10
of the same year, de Klerk and Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1999, de Klerk published his autobiography, “The Last Trek – A New
Beginning,” and established the F.W. de Klerk Foundation, which is dedicated to
the promotion of peace in multicommunal societies. He speaks around the world
and is an active elder statesman in international conferences on the subject as
well as the future of Africa and South Africa and the challenges facing the
world during the new millennium.

He is the honorary chair of the Prague Society for International Cooperation
in the Czech Republic; a member of the Assembly of the Parliament of Cultures
in Istanbul; and plays a substantial role in Forum 2000, a think-tank initiated
by former President Vaclav Havel and Nobel laureate Eli Wiesel. He serves on
the advisory boards of the Peres Centre for Peace in Israel and the Global
Panel in Germany.

de Klerk established the Global Leadership Foundation in March 2004.
Registered in Switzerland with operational headquarters in London, it plays a
constructive role in the promotion of peace, democracy and development and
helps national leaders who face complex economic and political challenges by
providing confidential advice, especially but not exclusively in the developing
world and emerging markets.

The lecture series is supported through a fund established by the late
Walter E. Remmers, a Rolla graduate, and his late wife, Miriam, to bring
renowned speakers and performers to the campus. The first Remmers Lecture was
held in 1979 and featured former President Gerald Ford.

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On August 22, 2008. Posted in Events, Top Headlines