SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa bid farewell to its last hardline white leader, PW Botha, yesterday in a private funeral in George attended by president Thabo Mbeki as a sign of reconciliation after the horrors of apartheid.
Mr Mbeki joined Nobel Peace Prize winner FW de Klerk, who succeeded Mr Botha and repudiated his policies, and former members of his government at a colonial-style church for the funeral, which was broadcast live on television.
Mr Botha died on October 31st, aged 90. He served as South Africa's president during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s, the belligerent and defiant face of a white government attacked at home and shunned abroad for its racist policies.
Mr Botha doggedly refused to release anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela from prison. He was prime minister and then president from 1978-1989 when thousands of black activists were murdered and tortured. He was unseated in a cabinet rebellion in 1989 and replaced by Mr de Klerk.
Mr Botha's family turned down an offer of a full state funeral, but Mr Mbeki did order flags flown at half-mast across the country, a move which infuriated some South Africans. - (Reuters)