Many of the obituaries of F.W. de Klerk were rather bad-tempered and some were downright spiteful. It seemed to stick in the throat of many people to have to acknowledge that he did an extremely brave and transformative thing by opting for a full and peaceful transition to democracy as soon as he became President. To dwell on his preceding career as an apartheid apparatchik seems perverse in the light of such a bold and complete reversal.