Johannesburg - President Nelson Mandela personally attempted to persuade former apartheid president P.W. Botha to testify before the country's truth body, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday. Mr Botha's repeated refusal to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission led Western Cape attorney-general Mr Frank Kahn to announce on Wednesday he would prosecute the ailing 81-year-old. He is due to appear in court on January 23rd.
Mr Mbeki told a press conference that Mr Mandela had spoken to Mr Botha's children, friends and advisers to try to persuade the man nicknamed the "great crocodile" to recognise the TRC, which is investigating apartheid-era human rights violations. Mr Mandela had also contacted officials from the conservative Dutch Reformed Church, to which Mr Botha belongs, and Gen Constand Viljoen, who headed the defence forces under Mr Botha's rule and who now leads a white right-wing party, the Freedom Front.