W. de Klerk, announced he was quitting as leader of the opposition National Party.
Following the remarks, critics have called for de Klerk to be stripped of the honor.
Three years later, de Klerk and Mandela would share the Nobel Peace Prize.
He said he would call South Africa's last white president, FW de Klerk, to testify if necessary.
The price of the peaceful handing over of power by Mr de Klerk's National Party was amnesty.
W. de Klerk, the South African president and National Party leader who worked with Mandela to end apartheid.
De Klerk, 76, shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela, 93, for their efforts to abolish apartheid.
And De Klerk's foundation said the former president's initial remarks on CNN had been taken out of context.
W. de Klerk's government brought most white South Africans reluctantly round to the idea of black majority rule.
W. de Klerk, who dismantled apartheid, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
W. de Klerk that Mandela's release was necessary for the nation to heal.
"The main cause for the tensions when there were tensions between us was the ongoing political violence, " De Klerk explained.
Mr de Klerk held on for a time as one of South Africa's two vice-presidents, but it was an unhappy tenure.
Moreover, as Mr de Klerk felt his influence wane at cabinet meetings, his once cordial relations with Mr Mandela turned sour.
W. de Klerk knew of illegal operations against black groups, conradicts accounts given to the commission by Mr de Klerk himself.
W. de Klerk forcing the TRC to remove a section that implicated him in a series of bombings in the 1980s.
De Klerk cites high unemployment as a grinding problem, with a rate of 50 percent among blacks between ages 18 and 34.
Still, de Klerk would not back off his belief in the validity of the original concept of "separate but equal" nation states.
De Klerk said the system is failing to deliver to the people.
Mr Kriel's ascendancy gave Mr de Klerk the chance to escape from his caretaker role and to work instead on preserving his reputation.
W. de Klerk, former president, who appeared twice before the commission, still says that he knew nothing of them: he blames rogue security policemen.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 jointly with former President FW de Klerk for ending apartheid and bringing democracy to South Africa.
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W. de Klerk, the last president of South Africa under apartheid.
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W. de Klerk on handing over power to the elected leader of South Africa's black majority, yet you find no fault in King Hussein's minority rule in Jordan.
W. de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as former football icons Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini, Eusebio and Roger Milla will also be on hand.
But if Mr de Klerk had plans to hand over to a younger man, he was deterred by the rancour within the party over its future direction.
Today, de Klerk said, the ANC -- the party in control -- is too powerful, its leaders have lost their "moral compass, " and it needs to split.
Amanpour noted that Mandela had once called de Klerk "a man of integrity" but had taken it back, regretting that de Klerk had never renounced the principle of apartheid.
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