About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Botha, P.W.

1916 -

Botha was born in the Orange Free State. In 1939 he helped to organise the Cape Town Branch of the Ossewa Brandwag, but was expelled from this organisation in 1941. He was pro-German in the Second World War.Botha was elected as MP for the George constituency in 1948 and ten years later, in 1958 he was appointed as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. In 1966 he became Minister of Defence, which portfolio he held until 1980. He became Prime Minister in 1978 but suffered a stroke in 1989 and was succeeded by F W de Klerk. Botha was the first white South African president to meet with Nelson Mandela. Botha refused to testify before the TRC in 1998.

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.