WORLD : De Klerk Son Courting Nonwhite
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — President Frederik W. de Klerk, whose apartheid reform program aims to break down the country’s strict race barriers, may soon have a nonwhite daughter-in-law, a South African newspaper said today.
De Klerk declined in a statement to confirm or deny a report in Die Burger newspaper that his son, Willem de Klerk, and his girlfriend, Erica Adams, would soon be engaged.
Adams, 22, is classified under apartheid as Colored, or a person of mixed race.
“He has not told me he is thinking about becoming engaged. In fact, I only recently became aware that a relationship exists between him and a fellow student,” De Klerk said.
Die Burger said Adams confirmed she had a relationship with De Klerk, but said, “I cannot say that we are engaged.”
She added: “We cannot give further details about our relationship because personal circumstances in our relationship make that impossible. . . . We might say something at a later stage.”
Adams is the daughter of a senior Colored local government official.
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