PW 'was a hard man to like'

2006-11-01 15:28

Johannesburg - The leaders of the new multi-racial South Africa paid tribute on Wednesday to their former enemy PW Botha, saying the late president deserved credit for opening the door to the end of the apartheid era.

The passing of Botha, who died in his sleep on Tuesday night at his home in the Western Cape, served as a sharp reminder of the bitter racial conflict which he presided over as prime minister and then president from 1978 to 1989.

Botha and his whites-only government were regarded as international pariahs over their refusal to enfranchise the black majority and their outlawing of the African National Congress.

But Nelson Mandela, who spent the Botha years as a prison inmate before winning the first multi-racial elections in 1994, put aside any sense of bitterness to express condolences for the man who branded him a terrorist.

Overbearing

"While to many, Mr Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country," Mandela said in a statement.

Botha was a symbol both of the country's dark past but of also of how far it had progressed since 1994, said Mandela.

"The passing of Mr Botha should serve to remind us not only our horribly divided past, but also of how South Africans from all persuasions ultimately came together to save our country from self-destruction."

Faced with mounting international pressure, which included economic sanctions, it was Botha who made the first tentative steps to open dialogue with the ANC, including an exchange of letters with Mandela.

Mandela said "our correspondence with Mr Botha while we were in prison was an important part of those initial stages", a point echoed by the current president and ANC leader Thabo Mbeki.

"It stands to his credit that when he realised the futility of fighting against what was right and inevitable, he, in his own way, realised that South Africans had no alternative but to reach out to one another," said Mbeki, whose son and brother are both believed to have been killed by apartheid agents.

But despite opening contacts with the ANC, Botha refused to release Mandela who had to wait until FW de Klerk took office to taste freedom.

De Klerk said Botha had been a hard man to like but deserved credit for initiating contacts with the ANC.

"Personally, my relationship with PW Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government," said de Klerk.

However he recalled that "it was under his leadership that the government first made contact with Nelson Mandela and ANC leaders in exile."

Botha's widow Barbara said a funeral service had been provisionally scheduled for next Wednesday, adding that he had wanted not a state funeral.

- AFP