Ding Dong!
There are few people whose death is more welcome than this duplicitous son of a bitch. Botha was in just about every way the quintessential bad guy. He was ugly looking, he had an awful temper, he openly defied reason, and his voice... ahh that. It was so unmistakably defiant, so arrogant. He seemed to strut around all the time with thinly veiled contempt for every political demand that crossed his path. I picture him, all red in the face blowing virtual steam out of his ears. Not only did he never back down until the end, but he backbit and sabotaged all the way down after he was forced out.
Typical of his rule was his 1985 "Crossing the Rubicon" speech, a policy speech in which Botha was widely expected to announce new reforms. Instead, he refused to give in to pressure for concessions to the black majority including the release of Nelson Mandela. His defiance of international opinion in this speech led immediately to further isolation of the country, calls for economic sanctions to be applied and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, Botha also declared a state of emergency.
I'm really surprised that he wasn't poisoned that he got to die in his own country rather than in exile. There will be no state funeral for him. Good. I hope they name a swamp after him, and spread his ashes somewhere around it unmarked. Serves a crocodile right.
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