Pieter Willem Botha

Pieter Willem Botha, (born January 12, 1916) commonly known as "P.W." and "die ou krokodil" (the old crocodile) was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and State President of South Africa from 1984 to 1989.

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Botha was a long-time supporter of South Africa's National Party and a staunch advocate of racial segregation and the apartheid system. He was elected to parliament in 1948 and became defense minister in 1966. When prime minister B.J. Vorster resigned in 1978, Botha became prime minister.

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In 1983 South Africa's constitution was revised, creating an executive presidency. In 1984 Botha was elected to the post of state president.

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As president, he had an ambitious foreign policy, developing a secret nuclear weapons program in collaboration with Israel and remaining steadfast in South Africa's occupation of the neighbouring territory of Namibia - as the United Nations called it - or South-West Africa, as Botha insisted it should be called. His authoritarian style of leadership made him quite unpopular in many western countries, and many condemned him as a cruel, racist dictator. In the United Kingdom, where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based, there was much debate over the imposition of trade/economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white-minority regime.

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In some ways, however, Botha's application of the apartheid system was actually less oppressive than that of his predecessors: interracial marriage, which had been banned, was legalized, and the constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas, and granted limited political rights to Coloureds (South Africans of mixed white and non-white ancestry) and Indians. He balked, however, at the idea of granting voting rights to black South Africans. He was willing to compromise on what he saw as the non-political aspects of apartheid, but on the central issue of granting political rights to blacks and ending white supremacy, he would not budge.

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Botha's uncompromising policies greatly polarized his own party's views, and eventually led the National Party to splinter into various feuding groups. In February 1989 Botha reportedly suffered a stroke and, caving-in to cabinet in-fighting as well as to external pressure from the US and Britain, Botha was forced to resign. The more moderate Frederik W. de Klerk became president later in 1989. Within five years de Klerk and the new government had dismantled the apartheid system through a series of negotiations with the African National Congress (the party led by Nelson Mandela who became South Africa's first black president.)

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Botha opposed many of F W de Klerk's reforms, and refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission for exposing apartheid-era crimes. He was not related to contemporary National Party politician Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, who served as foreign minister.

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January 12: January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 353 days remaining (354 in leap years)....

1916: 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar)...

Prime Minister of South Africa: The Prime Minister of South Africa (Afrikaans: Premier or Eerste Minister van Suid-Afrika) was the head of government in South Africa between 1910 and 1984....

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