DE KLERK'S PARTY WILL PULL OUT OF S. AFRICAN COALITION GOVERNMENT.

Byline: Suzanne Daley The New York Times

The day after South Africa adopted a constitution that he called flawed, Deputy President F.W. de Klerk announced that his National Party will pull out of President Nelson Mandela's coalition government.

De Klerk, who has clearly chafed in his role as deputy over the past two years, said South Africa's first true democracy was already strong enough for a robust opposition party and that he intended to lead it.

De Klerk and his National Party colleagues in the Cabinet will retain their posts until the end of next month.

``Our decision should be seen as an important step in the growing maturity and normalization of our young democracy,'' de Klerk said.

While his eventual pullout from the government was inevitable, the timing of the announcement threatened to create the impression of a crisis and fueled another day of turmoil for the South African stock exchange. Stock prices dropped by 1.5 percent Thursday.

De Klerk's National Party, which formally imposed apartheid during the 46 years it ruled South Africa, is one of three political parties represented in the Cabinet. Mandela's African National Congress has a comfortable majority and does not need the other parties to govern; the arrangement with the National Party was intended to soothe white fears during the transition to nonracial democracy, guaranteeing that whites had a say in government and that experienced officials would have a say in major decisions.

While the National Party's departure is not expected to be hugely disruptive to the country's bureaucracy, the question remains whether whites, who control much of the country's wealth, will lose confidence in the government or begin to believe they have no voice. The third member of the coalition government is the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, which said Thursday that it had no intention of leaving the government.

Clearly trying to reassure the country, and in particular investors, Mandela met with reporters Thursday in Cape Town and pledged to continue current government policies. He thanked de Klerk for his contributions, but said his own party was ready to forge ahead without the National Party.

``The African National Congress,'' he said, ``is supremely confident that we are going to carry the government of the country.''

He added that, while he understood and respected the political considerations that had prompted de Klerk's decision, he believed that de Klerk still had a responsibility to contribute to the eradication of ``the legacy that apartheid created.''

``We hope that their decision to play a more active role as an opposition party does not mean obstructing the process of transformation or defending apartheid privilege,'' he said.

The announcement ends a long, often forced partnership between two men who together reshaped South Africa's political landscape, but who often did not get along. It was de Klerk, then South Africa's president, who freed Mandela in 1990 after 27 years of imprisonment. They shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their roles in bringing about an end to South Africa's system of racial oppression.

But in recent times, signs of strain often have been visible. In November, Mandela called de Klerk a ``joke'' when de Klerk suggested that in the interest of ``evenhandedness'' some officials of Mandela's party be prosecuted for their role in the armed struggle to end apartheid. On another occasion, Mandela and de Klerk were seen shouting at each other in a parking lot after Mandela suggested that increasing crime was a problem his government had inherited from the apartheid government. De Klerk said he had told Mandela of his decision by telephone Thursday morning.