Former South African President F.W. deKlerk, the 85-year-old traitor who surrendered the country to the African National Congress (ANC), may be getting payback. He has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer which affects the lining of the lungs. At present there is no immediate threat to his health and the prospects of successful treatment exist. Born in 1936 in Johannesburg in what was then a country under strict white-minority rule, De Klerk first trained as a lawyer before joining the ruling National Party in 1972. First as a politician and then as a minister, De Klerk supported apartheid-era policies which privileged white South Africans and segregated the black majority. When party leader P. W. Botha resigned in 1989, De Klerk succeeded him and began a series of reforms aimed at dismantling apartheid and granting everyone a vote. In 1990, he was the one who released the terrorist Nelson Mandela from jail and then entered into "negotiations" with him about transitioning the country to democracy. In 1993, he publicly apologised for the effects of apartheid though did not apologise for the system itself. In 1994, South Africa fell under ANC rule.