Frederik Willem de Klerk, the former South African president who negotiated the end of apartheid with Nelson Mandela after spending years upholding the system of white minority rule, has died. He was 85.

De Klerk died at his home in Cape Town on Thursday after having been diagnosed with lung cancer in March.

After taking power in 1989, de Klerk removed a ban on the pro-democracy African National Congress, released Mandela from jail and managed the nation’s first all-race elections in 1994. He and Mandela were awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for securing a smooth transition to democracy.