Crossing the Rubicon
In 1985 South Africa's Foreign Minister, 'Pik' Botha (no relation), leaked information suggesting that PW Botha was going to announce drastic changes in South Africa, including freeing Nelson Mandela and giving the franchise to blacks. The speech on 15 August 1985 was broadcast live in South Africa, America, and Britain, but was a total disappointment.
In his presentation to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on 14 October 1997, 'Pik' Botha said:
"In August 1985 President PW Botha had delivered what has become known as his Rubicon Speech in Durban. The world had been waiting for good news, important announcements on dismantling apartheid and releasing Mr Nelson Mandela. I myself drafted that part of the speech in which the phrase "today we have crossed the Rubicon" appeared. President Botha, however, retained the sentence but removed what had preceded it, namely the release of Nelson Mandela and the government's intention to dismantle apartheid. The effect of the speech on the world, and on many South Africans, was that of a bucket of iced water in the face."
A defiant PW Botha warned the rest of the world not to "push him too far" and that he was not prepared to take "white South Africans, and other minority groups, on a road to abdication and suicide."
"I believe that we are today crossing the Rubicon in South Africa. There is no turning back."
The speech led directly to international sanctions and criticism. Botha's response was to take more and more direct control of South Africa's government, political commentators at the time referred to Botha's 'imperial' rule.
Removing Petty Apartheid
What Botha did do is remove all the laws which formed 'petty' Apartheid, such as the mixed marriages act, the implementation of pass books, segregation of recreational and other amenities. He also created a tricameral parliament, giving Coloureds and Indians separate (and very unequal) representation in government. Although the Group Areas act and Bantustan policy remained (Homelands could however elect to return to South Africa) right-wingers in the party rebelled. The leader of the National Party in the Transvaal, Andries Treurnicht, broke away to form the Conservative Party specifically to oppose a (all-white) referendum which outlined the new deal.
South Africa was suffering under economic sanctions and international condemnation. Covert support for internecine violence between black groups in South Africa was spiraling out of control, and a series of emergency powers were invoked.
Bitter Struggle for Power
On 18 January 1989, before any major reforms could take place PW Botha had a mild stroke. Hospitalized for a few days and unable to attend the opening of parliament. Botha resigned as leader of the National Party but refused to give up the presidency. FW de Klerk took over party leadership, and there ensued a brief, but bitter, struggle for control. At a National Party caucus meeting on August 14 Botha was asked to resign and De Klerk became acting state president the following day.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
In 1998 PW Botha refused to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), calling the process a 'circus'. He did, however, provide written answers to questions about his role as head of the State Security Council which the TRC found to have sanctioned the killing of anti-apartheid activists. PW Botha was convicted in 1989 of holding the TRC in contempt, fined, and given a suspended five-year sentence, but this was overturned on appeal in the Cape High court. The TRC also found that he ordered the bombing of Khotso House, the headquarters of the anti-apartheid South African Council of Churches, and gross violations of human rights.
PW Botha's first wife Elize died in 1997 from a heart attack. After a brief relationship with a woman 34 years his junior, Botha remarried on 23 June 1998, this time to a British-born woman, Barbara Robertson.
PW Botha died at 20h00, 31 October 2006, at the age of 90 'peacefully' at his home De Anker (the Anchor) in Wilderness region of the Western Cape.
