Former South African president who freed Mandela dies aged 85 

FW de Klerk, the former president of South Africa, has died peacefully aged 85 after a cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

He served as the country’s head of state from September 1989 to May 1994, and was instrumental in its transition to democracy.

He took over as head of South Africa’s National Party in 1989 and announced the removal on party bans including Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress the following year.

Under his premiership in 1990, Mandela was released after 27 years in jail.