BETSIE Verwoerd, the widow of former apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd, has died in Orania at the age of 98. “She died in the presence of family members without sickness and pain,” her family said in a statement sent from her home in the whites-only town of Orania where she had lived for the past eight years and was regarded as a symbol of Afrikaner freedom. Tannie (Auntie) Betsie, as the great- grandmother was known, was married to Verwoerd for 39 years before he was stabbed to death in 1966 by a government messenger in the Cape Town parliament. Hendrik Verwoerd was prime minister from 1958 to 1966. “She and her husband are part of South Africa’s history even though we sharply condemned their policies,” said former president Nelson Mandela, who met Mrs Verwoerd in 1995. “My thoughts are with her family during this period.” In a political about-face, one of her grandchildren is a high-profile supporter of the ANC and is married to an ANC parliamentarian.