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Row over road named for apartheid president FW de Klerk

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Former South African president FW De Klerk  gestures as he arrives with his wife Elita for the memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium in Soweto, near Johannesburg on December 10, 2013. Photo: AP

A Cape Town road has been named after FW de Klerk, the last president of South Africa's white-minority apartheid government, despite fierce opposition.

The proposal was adopted on Wednesday during a chaotic city council meeting, with councillors from South Africa's ruling African National Congress - virulently opposed to the motion - locked out of the venue, local media reported.

Cape Town is under the control of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

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South Africa's last white president, de Klerk ruled from 1989 until the country's first democratic elections in 1994. He was jointly awarded a Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela in 1993 for his part in dismantling apartheid.

The proposal to rename a section of the road - previously called Table Bay Boulevard - after the politician was put forward by a group of 27 signatories, including fellow Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and DA leader Helen Zille.

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But the move has been fiercely opposed by the left, including the ANC, the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the union umbrella body.

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