"We were richly blessed that … an F.W. de Klerk replaced the stiff-necked and irascible P.W. Botha as President of South Africa."
Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness, Doubleday, p37.
"In 1985, Mr. [P.W.] Botha had failed dismally to rise to the occasion when he produced a damp squib in what had been billed as a major speech in which he would “cross the Rubicon” and announce reforms."
Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness, Doubleday, p37.
"Mr P.W. Botha was the state President and, being the irascible, difficult, and stubborn man that he was, he had a short fuse. It was said that he reduced grown men, his cabinet ministers, to tears with his caustic tongue and no one dared to cross him. What he wanted he got. His wish was everybody’s command. That was the prevailing ethos."
Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness, Doubleday, p223.
"Apartheid, perversely described by Mr. P.W. Botha, sometime state President of South Africa, as “good neighborliness,” had systematically stripped Colored, Indians, and especially blacks of their rights and denuded their humanity."
Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness, Doubleday, p102.
"stiff-necked and irascible .. granite-like."
Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness, Doubleday, p37.
"Evidence brought to us
Desmond Tutu, in No Future Without Forgiveness, Doubleday, p243.
"He was the last real president of apartheid and the first president who saw that it needed to end. The reform he pushed for – the participation of the majority – ironically led to more resistance. The tricameral system, by which he tried to accommodate resistance and the recognition of black municipalities, saw more opposition, which forced him to fall back on using force."
Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert, leader of the opposition Progressive Federal Party, Cape Times, 1 November 2006.
"Circumstances forced him to be a reformer. He was extremely authoritative, militant and not very well read; he relied heavily on the people around him. He started the process of dialogue with the ANC, but this was behind the scenes and very hush-hush."
Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert, leader of the opposition Progressive Federal Party
Mail & Guardian, 1 November 2006.
" [PW Botha] succeeded in protecting South Africa during the difficult eighties before the fall of the Soviet Union."
David Steward, spokesman for FW de Klerk, Die Burger, 1 November 2006.
"Personally, my relationship with PW Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government [however] it was under his leadership that the government first made contact with Nelson Mandela and ANC leaders in exile."
FW de Klerk, iAfrica news, 1 November 2006.
"He was very irritable, bad-tempered … He was not enormously intelligent ... but he had enough sense to realise that change would have to come because the black resistance was gearing up considerably and the opposition of the international community was growing very strong."
Helen Suzman, iAfrica news, 1 November 2006.
