Word: botha
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...Unlike Botha, who always brandished a metaphorical swagger stick, De Klerk is not a creature of the powerful South African security establishment. Botha relied on the threat of military power and ironfisted retaliation, but De Klerk stands for law. In an action both symbolic and concrete, President de Klerk quickly dismantled the shadowy National Security Management System, which controlled the black townships, and downgraded the State Security Council. "The most important thing about De Klerk," says a senior Western diplomat, "is that he is a civilian. He believes in civilian control and getting away from the junta way of doing...
...most obvious contrast between F.W. and P.W. is temperament, not ideology. Die Groot Krokodil -- the Great Crocodile -- as Botha was not so affectionately called, was an irascible and imperious man who listened less as he grew older. De Klerk is an amiable fellow who prefers consensus to dogmatic, one-man rule. He has restored the Cabinet to the role of the premier policymaking body, and he has held more Cabinet sessions in five months than Botha did in his final two years. More refined than the boorish Botha, De Klerk has done away with some of the trappings of autocracy...
...leaders and the President last fall: "De Klerk said, 'The purpose of government is the establishment of law- and-order.' And others said, 'No, in our religious tradition, which you and I share, the purpose of government is the establishment of justice.' De Klerk replied, 'You are right.' P.W. Botha would never have admitted that someone else could be right and he wrong...
When he is freed, Mandela will walk out into a world vastly different from the strict apartheid society he vowed to overthrow. Starting with then Prime Minister P.W. Botha's warning in 1979 that whites must "adapt or die," the idea of changing national institutions and the realization that power should be shared with the black majority have moved into the mainstream. That change of attitude has been given real impetus in the five months since De Klerk was elected to succeed Botha. With a speed that surprised almost everyone, the new and little-known President made a series...
Freedom will mark a great personal triumph for Mandela, who has repeatedly refused offers for his conditional release and never wavered from his demand for a multiracial South Africa based on a system of one man, one vote. When Botha announced in 1985 that Mandela could go free if he simply renounced the A.N.C.'s armed struggle, Mandela defiantly replied, "Let Botha show that he is different. I cannot and will not give any undertaking. Only free men can negotiate...