Nelson Mandela a 'great unifier', says South Africa's last white president For many years Mr de Klerk and Mr Mandela had been on opposite sides on the political debate before coming together to bring down apartheid in the early 1990s. The pair eventually shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Mr de Klerk served as one of Mr Mandela's deputy presidents until 1996. Mr de Klerk, the country's last white president, described how Mr Mandela had to arrive under the cover of darkness for their first ever meeting together. My first impression of him was that he was taller than I expected. He had a dignified air around him, he spoke with great clarity," Mr de Klerk said. I found him an analytical listener. I immediately liked him and there was a spark between us. Mr de Klerk said that the pair's "remarkable agreement" came about because Mr Mandela never held a grudge about the way he had been treated in the past. He had a remarkable lack of bitterness. He understood the concerns of my people and what I represented in public life. He was prepared to go out of his way to accommodate those concerns without giving up his principles," Mr de Klerk said. Asked what was Mr Mandela's greatest legacy, Mr de Klerk responded: "His greatest legacy was that he was a unifier and that he successfully built the bridge between the conflict of the past and the peace of today." He added that through his death - as in life - Mr Mandela would once again unify the country.