‘Groot krokodil’ of apartheid dies at 90

PW Botha, the former prime minister and president of South Africa, long known as ”the great crocodile”, died on Tuesday night at his home in the Wilderness, in the Western Cape.

A member of his security staff, Captain Frikkie Lucas, said: ”Botha died at home, peacefully.” He was 90. His second wife, Barbara, found him dead in bed just after 8pm. He had seemed to be in good health.

The African National Congress (ANC), which now rules South Africa but which was outlawed as a terrorist organisation under Botha, was one of the first organisations to offer condolences — in a symbol of how the new multiracial South Africa is trying to heal the wounds of its apartheid past.

”The ANC extends its sympathies and condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of former president PW Botha, who passed away this evening. The ANC wishes his family strength and comfort at this difficult time,” it said in a statement.

Botha saw South Africa descend into anarchy under his watch as he kept a tough line against what he called the ”total onslaught” of communism and its partners in Africa’s black liberation movements, leading South Africa through its worst racial violence and deepest international isolation.

He will be remembered as South Africa’s ”securocrat” — a man with a legendary temper who tried to bring a ”total strategy” to bear on his perceived enemies, the black people of South Africa, whom he believed were waging a ”total onslaught” against the state.

As part of this strategy he created a hidden form of government, the ”national management system”, made up of the military, which shadowed their civilian counterparts.

He is widely believed to have been responsible for the setting up of hit squads that conducted a murderous campaign against anti-apartheid activists. It is also suspected that he signed a pact with Israel that included the transfer of military technology and the manufacture of at least six atom bombs.

Botha suffered a stroke in 1989, as a result of which he was forced out of power by his successor, FW de Klerk, who was, by Botha’s standards, a reformist.

The number of deaths for which Botha carries ”command” responsibility will never be known. But under his government the security forces killed more than 2 000 people, and an estimated 25 000 people were detained without trial and often tortured.

But black South Africa has treated him with surprising leniency. Nelson Mandela has credited to Botha for the ”critical role” he played in South Africa’s transition to a non-racial democracy.

In 1994 Botha refused to testify before Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, describing it as a ”circus”. He was convicted of contempt of the commission and fined, but successfully appealed.

Botha was first elected an MP in 1948, when the National Party came to power under DF Malan. In 1983, five years after becoming prime minister, he introduced a Constitution for a ”tri-cameral” Parliament in which whites, coloureds and Indians were given representation. He was elected the first state president under this Constitution.

In 1986 he made perhaps his biggest blunder, his infamous ”Rubicon” speech. He had been expected to announce a reform programme, but instead famously wagged his finger at the cameras and warned the world that he would not surrender to pressure.

This speech was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as the international community was concerned, and a number of important financial institutions withdrew investments. The South African currency collapsed as a result.

In his own words