JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The Nobel Peace Prize medal awarded to South Africa’s last apartheid president, F. W. de Klerk, was stolen from his Cape Town home six months ago, its bases revealed Wednesday. He won the award in 1993 along with anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. , for its role in bringing South Africa to democracy.
The 18-carat recycled gold medal was stolen from his home in a home invasion in April.
“I can verify that the Nobel Peace Prize belonging to Klerk F. W. was stolen from his home this year,” Brenda Steyn, the foundation’s head of inheritance, told AFP.
The former president died last November at the age of 12 after being diagnosed with cancer.
Mandela and De Klerk were jointly awarded the prestigious laurel in Oslo “for their paintings for the nonviolent end of the apartheid regime and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa. “
De Klerk led South Africa’s transition from white minority rule to the first multiracial elections in 1994 after freeing Mandela in 1990.
Mandela became South Africa’s first black president after his African National Congress party won the first democratic elections.
De Klerk’s widow, Elita Georgiades, suspects a former domestic worker who worked for the family circle for seven years was the perpetrator of the robbery, Steyn said.
The theft was reported to Cape Town Police.