South Africa's apartheid-era leader Botha dies
Afp, Johannesburg
The leaders of the new multi-racial South Africa paid tribute Wednesday to their former enemy PW Botha, saying the late president deserved credit for paving the way 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 0ver the death of the man who branded him a terrorist. "While to many, 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.
| 
