for "The Big Crocodile"), was the prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president
from 1984 to 1989.
First elected to Parliament
in 1948, Botha was for eleven years head of the Afrikaner
National Party
and the South African government. Although a fierce opponent of black majority rule
and Communism, his government did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses on the hands of the government as well as the militant opposition.
Adapt or die.
I believe we are today crossing the Rubicon, Mr Chairman. In South Africa there can be no turning back. I have a manifesto for the future of our country and we must engage in positive action in the months and years that lie ahead.
You could not claim for yourself that which you were not prepared to grant others.
The security and happiness of all minority groups in South Africa depends on the Afrikaner.
I am one of those who believe that there is no permanent home for even a section of the Bantu in the white area of South Africa and the destiny of South Africa depends on this essential point. If the principle of permanent residence for the black man in the area of the white is accepted then it is the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it in this country.
Most blacks are happy, except those who have had other ideas pushed into their ears.
The people who are opposing the policy of apartheid have not the courage of their convictions. They do not marry non-Europeans.
The free world wants to feed South Africa to the Red Crocodile [communism], to appease its hunger.
Our history is responsible for the differences in the South African way of life.
Because you could not translate the word apartheid into the more universal language of English, the wrong connotation was given to it.