Word: bothas
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Later, while Mandela is being interviewed by Khulu Sibiya, a prominent black journalist, a phone call comes in from former President P.W. Botha. The last of the country's hard-line Afrikaner leaders, Botha for years refused to release Mandela from jail. He is famous for his bullying manner, and before taking the call, Mandela jokes, "Fortunately, I am quite a distance away, so he won't wag a finger at me." On the line, Mandela is respectful and speaks to Botha in Afrikaans. The conversation is off the record. After hanging up, Mandela calls his two junior partners...
...bombarded Coetsee with letters urging contacts between the two sides, which had never officially talked to each other. A secret committee was set up including Coetsee, Mandela and Niel Barnard, the head of South Africa's intelligence service. Mandela pressed for a meeting with South Africa's President, P.W. Botha, known as the Great Crocodile for his blustery temper. An off-the-record courtesy call was finally arranged in 1989. So anxious was Barnard, the intelligence chief, about the meeting that seconds before the two men were to shake hands, he knelt down to fix Mandela's clumsily tied shoes...
Sparks' skillful weaving of myriad strands-Mandela's secret sessions with the committee, the clandestine talks in England between the African National Congress and the government, the back-channel communications between Mandela and the a.n.c. in exile, the trepidation of Botha and the apparent transformation of his successor, De Klerk-possesses the drama and intrigue of a diplomatic whodunit. Sparks uncovers fresh details about Mandela's secret outings around Cape Town with his jailers (one of whom covertly brought the grandfatherly prisoner home to meet his two small children), the vital role of Mandela's courtly lawyer, George Bizos...
Others point to Judaism's unique nature as botha religion and an ethnicity as a difference fromother creeds and minority groups...
Ironically, the bloodshed on the road to Bisho may serve to bring De Klerk and Mandela together. The A.N.C. said it was "prepared to participate" in a summit which would break months of bitter estrangement between the two leaders. And Foreign Minister R.F. ("Pik") Botha has asked the United Nations not just for observers but also for a mediator to help curb the violence and get the constitutional negotiations back on track. Given the mutual mistrust that has existed for decades between South Africa and the U.N., that appeal underlined South Africa's desperation...