LISTEN: ‘Pik Botha was a man of contradictions’
Veteran journalist and writer Max du Preez has described former apartheid-era foreign affairs minister Pik Botha as ‘a man of many contradictions and a talented diplomat’. Botha passed away in Pretoria on Thursday at the age of 86.
Du Preez, who is the former founding editor of the anti-apartheid newspaper Vrye Weekblad, says he knew Botha for more than two decades.
Botha’s 17 years as foreign affairs minister is a world record.
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“I always judge people by how their children feel about them and I know his two sons and they absolutely adored their father. The other side of it is that he was for many years the nice face of an evil regime.”
“He had his doubts about that. In 1984 he said there would be a black president in South Africa and he nearly got fired for that because at that point that was complete lunacy. In 2000 he joined the ANC saying he sees that as the future of South Africa, so he was a man of contradictions. Talented but at the same time on can never forget that he tried to sell apartheid to the world.”
Du Preez says Botha made a positive contribution after leaving former president Nelson Mandela’s government of national unity.
“I think after he left government he said many things that would be food for thought for most conservative white South Africans. He was saying we have one future, we are one people and we should make peace with and look at the past and see it for what it was and not repeat it. I think his role post-1996 was a positive one. “