President Cyril Ramaphosa says whether South Africans agreed with him or not, apartheid South Africa's last president FW de Klerk should be released to rest in peace.

On Sunday, Ramaphosa delivered the eulogy at a state memorial service for De Klerk at the historic Groote Kerk in Cape Town.

Ramaphosa said De Klerk played a pivotal role in shaping South Africa's transition to democracy. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during de Klerk's state memorial service at the Groote Kerk church in Cape Town.

"Many wondered why we would want a memorial at a state level for FW de Klerk. And we said we would have it because he is one person who played an important role in the evolution of our democracy. Whether we agreed with him or not, let's now release him so that he can be at peace," Ramaphosa told mourners.

De Klerk died at his home in Fresnaye, Cape Town, on 11 November after battling mesothelioma cancer.

He was laid to rest in a private ceremony at an undisclosed location.

Ramaphosa said FW de Klerk's speech on 2 February 1990, in which he announced the unbanning of liberation movements and the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners, was a brave act.

"In taking this bold step, De Klerk heeded the call by Nelson Mandela who, while still incarcerated, told the apartheid rulers that the only way to resolve what he called the perpetual crisis in the country was through negotiations between the ANC and the National Party government," he said.

Ramaphosa reiterated that De Klerk went against many hardline Afrikaners who wanted to keep the status quo intact.

He said:In taking such a bold step, FW de Klerk went against many in his own party and against many white South Africans who had been taught about the 'swart gevaar', who had been brought up to fear majority rule and to regard black aspirations as a threat to their way of life, their culture and their very existence. De Klerk went against elements in his own state security apparatus and against diehards who were prepared to take up arms to preserve the status quo.

Soon after his death, the FW de Klerk Foundation released videos which showed him making posthumous apologies, but this stirred up emotions even more.

The Black People National Crisis Committee, which slaughtered a sheep in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, to "celebrate" his death, felt that a state memorial service was a "slap in the face" of black people.

Ramaphosa said De Klerk was a man whose life was bound up in the country's fortunes, crises, triumphs, complexity and contradictions.

Speaking in Afrikaans, Ramaphosa said: "Hy het op 'n tydstip beheer gehad oor 'n onregverdige stelsel, maar hy het die moed van sy oortuiging gehad om 'n ander koers in te slaan vir sy party en vir sy mense. Vir dit sal ons hom onthou." ["He once presided over an unjust system, but he had the courage of his conviction to go in a different direction for his party and for his people. And for this we shall remember him.]"