Marike de Klerk

Marike de Klerk ( Willemse; 29 March 1937 – 3 December 2001) was the First Lady of South Africa, as the wife of State President Frederik Willem de Klerk, from 1989–1994. She was also a politician of the former governing National Party in her own right. De Klerk was murdered in her Cape Town home in 2001.

Biography

Personal life The graves of Prof W.A. Willemse and his daughter Marike de Klerk in the Pretoria West Cemetery Marike Willemse was born into an upper-middle class Afrikaner family in Pretoria. Her father, Wilhelm Willemse, was an academic and writer. He was a professor of Social Pathology and Psychology at University of Pretoria.

Willemse met her future husband, F. W. de Klerk, at Potchefstroom University (where she was studying for a degree in commerce). The couple later married and adopted three children together; Jan, Willem, and Susan.

In 1983, de Klerk made comments about the Coloured community: "You know, they are a negative group ... a non-person. They are the people that were left after the nations were sorted out. They are the rest."

Career During her husband's presidency, Marike was the leader of the National Party's women's wing. Winnie Mandela chose to attend de Klerk's funeral rather than the funeral of ANC stalwart Joe Modise.

De Klerk bequeathed her R2 million estate and properties to her children.