Word: botha
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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From his prison quarters in South Africa's wine-producing region near Paarl, Nelson Mandela has been conducting a quiet diplomatic campaign. Last July he accepted an invitation from his adversary, former President P.W. Botha, for a historic face-to-face meeting. Mandela has since received a series of visitors at the Victor Verster Prison Farm, where he is serving his 26th year of a life sentence for plotting to overthrow white rule. Most of his powwows have been with leaders of rival antigovernment groups. But last week Mandela, 71, a leader of the banned African National Congress (A.N.C.), traveled...
...Mandela's A.N.C. comrades were pleased by the exchange. Many were similarly disgruntled over the July meeting with Botha, an encounter of less import, considering that Botha was a lame duck. Some A.N.C. members seem to object to Mandela's taking a supreme role in the organization, officially headed by the ailing Oliver Tambo, 72. Still, none suggested that Mandela had compromised the A.N.C. goal of one-man, one-vote black majority rule, although younger militants are afraid that he has grown too soft and too accommodating. The group officially opposes talks with the government until several preconditions...
When State President F.W. de Klerk speaks of his vision of a new South Africa, the country's voteless 26 million blacks can be forgiven for being skeptical. The reform policies of De Klerk's predecessor, P.W. Botha, unleashed disappointment and nearly three years of violent unrest before grinding to a halt. But one of the most vocal critics of De Klerk's reluctance to abolish apartheid is a prominent Afrikaner who sat only a few feet behind him on inauguration day last month: his elder brother Willem...
Foreign Minister Pik Botha and Finance Minister Barend du Plessis criticized police action in whipping Blacks off a white beach during the election campaign, while Minister of Law and Order Adriaan Vlok defended the action...
...Opinion in government quarters was that the go-ahead for the march was an important signal to the security establishment that the excessive influence in enjoyed during the P.W. Botha era was on the wane," the newspaper said...