Nelson Mandela led South Africans today in paying tribute to former president PW Botha, the defiant face of apartheid who doggedly clung to white rule and refused to free Mandela from jail.
Former South African president PW Botha
Mr Botha (90), died at home yesterday. His wife Barbara said he will be given a private funeral next week.
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 Mr Mandela.
Widely known as "The Great Crocodile", Botha, who presided over some of the worst excesses of the apartheid era during the 1970s and 1980s, had lived quietly in Wilderness, about 350 kilometres east of Cape Town, since being ousted in 1989.
Nelson Mandela
"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," Mr Mandela said in a statement.
Mr 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.
Botha was toppled in a cabinet rebellion in 1989 and replaced by FW 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.
Mr De Klerk guided South Africa's white rulers through the delicate negotiations that ultimately brought the African National Congress (ANC), led by Mr Mandela, to power in multi-racial elections in 1994.
Mr 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 Mr Mandela the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Mr De Klerk in 1993.