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kywalt · Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 20997 Location: Okolona

Outlived by Tutu and Mandela...

Former South Africa leader dies
Tuesday, 31 October 2006, Former South Africa President PW Botha dies at the age of 90 at his home in the Western Cape.

He died peacefully, said a member of his security staff, Frikkie Lucas.

Nicknamed the "Groot Krokodil" - Afrikaans for the "Great Crocodile" - Botha led white minority rule of the nation between 1978 and 1989.

He was succeeded by South Africa's last white President, FW de Klerk, who led the country to multi-racial elections.

During his rule, Botha defied international criticism and refused to release Nelson Mandela, the country's most famous political prisoner during the apartheid era.

Botha was later summoned to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel set up by then President Mandela's government to probe abuses.

In 1998 the panel concluded that Botha was guilty of gross human rights violations.

However, he continued to lead a quiet life with his second wife Barbara in a seaside resort on the Western Cape coast for almost two decades.

Botha led the country through its worst racial violence at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/6104332.stm
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Walt's Law - Computers enable change to happen at an ever accelerating pace until, at some point, the rate of change cannot be tolerated and systemic breakdown occurs.

yeoman · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:34 pm Post subject: Re: PW Botha dead at 90

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Such a likable man, defending his people from the danger within

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Gloucester: I say no more than truth, so help me God!

York: In your protectorship you did devise
Strange tortures for offenders never heard of,
That England was defamed by tyranny.

Henry VI, Part 2 – Act 3, Scene 1. Lines: 122-124.

outrider-onward · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject: Re: PW Botha dead at 90

Georgie Bush had a dream last night (no, not a wet dream about all the hundred thousand people who have died as a result of his policies). He dreamt he was standing in front of the Pearly Gates, when Fundy Botha showed up. They talked for a while in conspiratorial whispers, glancing up occasionally to see if St Peter had looked up from his Book of Life, that lay atop the fulcrum rostrum. After many minutes, neither of them could figure out or imagine why they were there.

--outrider

gandhigram · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 12950

outrider-onward · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:58 pm Post subject: Re: PW Botha dead at 90

yeoman · Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:27 pm Post subject: Re: PW Botha dead at 90

And in South Africa, former apartheid president P.W. Botha has died at the age of ninety. Botha vigorously defended the apartheid system which lead to the jailing of tens of thousands of people. He never repented or apologized for his actions and resisted attempts to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

P.W. Botha: “I am not going to repent. I am not going to ask for forgiveness. What I did, I did for my country.”

In a statement, Nelson Mandela, who spent 11 of his 27 years in prison under Botha’s rule, described him as a "symbol of apartheid", but said he took steps towards an "eventual peacefully negotiated settlement" in South Africa.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Such a likable man, defending his people from the danger within

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And damned lucky the community did not hold it against him.
_________________
Gloucester: I say no more than truth, so help me God!

York: In your protectorship you did devise
Strange tortures for offenders never heard of,
That England was defamed by tyranny.

Henry VI, Part 2 – Act 3, Scene 1. Lines: 122-124.

anindo · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 17355

This is going to make Tony and his massah, Shippy, really really sad. They've lost another one of their heroes.
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anindo
"Deus est mortali iuvare mortalem" : "God is one human being helping another." - Pliny the Elder

kywalt · Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 20997 Location: Okolona

Mandela praises arch enemy Botha after apartheid leader dies
01 November 2006 : The leaders of the new multi-racial South Africa have paid tribute to their former enemy P.W. 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 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 bittnerness to express condolences for the man who branded him a terrorist.

"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."

MORE
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Walt's Law - Computers enable change to happen at an ever accelerating pace until, at some point, the rate of change cannot be tolerated and systemic breakdown occurs.

yeoman

Re: Mandela was Botha's arch enemy, but not vice versa.

I do not understand why the writer calls Botha Mandela's arch-enemy, when it was Botha who swore Mandela was his enemy, and the enemy of the state. Clearly Mandela held no similar view, evidenced by the following poster. If you can make this poster out to be the work of vengence against the "arch enemy" of the people of South Africa, and against Botha, i sure would like to see your reasoning. Afterall, the poster below is the legacy of that 'archrivalry', and i don't see the heads flying, except when some devotee of apartheid tries to be ridiculous and make the south rise again Wink

.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

After all, the hatred was Botha's and the apartheid.

but maybe that is a fine point lost on white fok, eh kentucky.
_________________
Gloucester: I say no more than truth, so help me God!

York: In your protectorship you did devise
Strange tortures for offenders never heard of,
That England was defamed by tyranny.

Henry VI, Part 2 – Act 3, Scene 1. Lines: 122-124.

LiberalPartisan · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 480

He will be missed by all republicans.

kywalt · Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 20997 Location: Okolona

‘Nothing to Apologize For’
Nov 1, 2006 - South Africa’s P. W. Botha remained truculent until the end. But his legacy is less simple than it seems.

It was August 1985, and South Africans privileged enough to own television sets were crowding around them to listen to P. W. Botha to address the nation. The president’s speech to his ruling National Party congress was being billed as a landmark political event in the apartheid state, and indeed it was. Botha began by promising to negotiate a new constitutional future for “this lovely country of ours.” He ended with a stirring cry: “I believe,” he announced, “that we are today crossing the Rubicon.”

Problem was, he didn’t come close. Botha delivered his infamous Rubicon speech as internal resistance and external pressure were intensifying against his white government. It was his chance to throw a bone to leaders like U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—to allow them to argue that their “constructive engagement” policy would prod Pretoria into change faster than punitive sanctions. Instead, Botha resorted to his trademark finger-wagging belligerence as he scuttled all hope of enfranchising his country’s black majority. “Reasonable South Africans will not accept the principle of one-man one-vote in a unitary system,” he thundered. “That would lead to domination of one of the others and would lead to chaos. Consequently I reject it as a solution.”

Pieter Willem Botha, known as “P. W.,” died Tuesday at the age of 90. His obituaries universally describe him as the defiant face of white rule and the hard-line defender of apartheid. Unquestionably true. Botha’s role in the history of his country, however, is a little more nuanced than that.

More http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15518816/site/newsweek/
_________________
Walt's Law - Computers enable change to happen at an ever accelerating pace until, at some point, the rate of change cannot be tolerated and systemic breakdown occurs.