SOUTH AFRICA: Mandela leads conciliatory tributes to S.Africa's Botha
- 00:00:20
- ITN Source
SOUTH AFRICA: Mandela leads conciliatory tributes to S.Africa's Botha
Former South African President P.W. Botha, the defiant face of white rule at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle, died at his home on Tuesday (October 31, 2006) aged 90. Botha, known widely as "The Great Crocodile" for his adamant stance against black rule in South Africa, died at his home in Wilderness, about 350 km (220 miles) east of Cape Town, where head lived since being ousted from power in 1989. Nelson Mandela led South Africans in remembering former President Botha. Mandela spent 27 years behind bars, including about a decade under the rule of Botha, who was at the helm during South Africa's most tumultuous years and struggled in vain to preserve apartheid white rule. "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. News of his death prompted an outpouring of conciliatory statements from President Thabo Mbeki's government and others who had fought to wipe away his regime's strict racial divisions and embrace the multi-racial reconciliation embodied by Mandela. Mandela's fellow political prisoner Tokyo Sexwale (Pronounced To-kee-oh Seh-gwa-lay) gave condolences to Botha's family, but said he deeply regretted the former leader had never attempted to heal the wounds or apologise for bloody atrocities that occurred under his watch. "He is a fellow South Africa and we pass our condolences to him. But let it not be forgotten that this government, the government of apartheid represented brutality, cruelty, ruthlessness, murder, torture and all that all the other things that were recorded during the annals of Amnesty International," he said. Botha was toppled in a cabinet rebellion in 1989 and replaced by F.W. de Klerk, who repudiated almost everything the finger-wagging hardliner had stood for, including the laws at the heart of the system of strict racial segregation. De Klerk guided South Africa's white rulers through the delicate negotiations that ultimately brought the African National Congress (ANC), led by Mandela, to power in multi-racial elections in 1994. Mandela said on Wednesday that secret talks with Botha during his time in prison had been an important part of the initial stages, and that Botha's death should be a reminder of "how South Africans from all persuasions ultimately came together to save our country from self-destruction". Mandela's statement reflected the core policy of reconciliation that underpinned his own presidency. Many believe this saved South Africa from a bloody transition from apartheid. That policy earned Mandela the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with De Klerk in 1993, and was echoed in tributes to Botha from leading South Africans, including radical elements in the apartheid-era political divide. Barbara Botha put paid questions as to whether the former president would be given a state funeral. She said Botha had been "terribly misunderstood" and that South Africans would come to realise what they had lost. Botha, who presided over some of the worst excesses of the apartheid era during the 1970s and 1980s, was briefly taken to hospital in October for what were described as routine tests. Botha's career in the National Party, led by the French and Dutch-descended Afrikaners who dominated South Africa for decades, mirrored the collapse of white rule in the country.
ITN Source | November 1, 2006
