The former South African president. Mr F.W. de Klerk, yesterday publicly crossed swords with the man who served as his foreign minister and, before that, as foreign minister in the governments of Mr P.W. Botha and Mr B.J. Vorster.
Mr De Klerk's criticism of his former colleague was triggered by Mr Pik Botha's endorsement of the African National Congress ahead of his old party, the National Party (NP), in an interview with the Afrikaans newspaper Rapport.
Mr Botha labelled himself a "proud Afrikaner", but one who saw the need for Afrikaners to rid themselves of the "mole complex" which encouraged tunnel vision and concentrated their minds on preservation of their inherited advantages.
The former foreign minister, who differed sharply with Mr De Klerk's 1996 decision to withdraw the National Party from the ANC-led government of national unity after the 1994 general election, went on to compare Mr De Klerk unfavourably with Mr Nelson Mandela.
Rating Mr Mandela a greater man than Mr De Klerk, Mr Botha said: "Mandela succeeded in reaching out to whites without bitterness. Mr De Klerk simply did not succeed in reaching out to blacks." "The process of healthy political regrouping and restructuring will only begin when Afrikaners join the ANC," he added.
Mr De Klerk countered that the real challenge was not for Afrikaners to join the ANC but for all South Africans to build a strong, viable and multiracial opposition party.
"It is as important for a country to have an effective opposition as it is to have an effective government," he riposted. "If multi-party democracy fails, all the sound values to which Mr Botha refers, and which were written into the constitution at the insistence of NP, will be at risk."