Mandela Foundation: De Klerk legacy 'big but uneven'

In 1990, De Klerk ordered Mandela's release after 27 years in prison. Three years later, they shared a Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the transition from white-minority apartheid rule.

"De Klerk’s legacy is a big one," the foundation said in a statement. "It is also an uneven one, something South Africans are called to reckon with in this moment."

When Mandela won the first all-race elections in 1994, de Klerk served as his deputy for three years.

While De Klerk was hailed as a peacemaker in the 1990s, his reputation grew more complicated in recent years over his refusal to make a full accounting for the horrific violence that buttressed apartheid.

The two leaders sparred frequently, but the Mandela foundation recalled his remarks at De Klerk's 70th birthday celebrations.

"If we two old, or ageing, men have any lessons for our country and for the world, it is that solutions to conflicts can only be found if adversaries are fundamentally prepared to accept the integrity of one other," Mandela said at the time.

De Klerk died Thursday at age 85 after a battle with cancer.