Pieter Willem Botha, DMS was the leader of South Africa from 1978 to 1989, serving as the last Prime Minister from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive State President from 1984 to 1989.
Background
Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province, the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (born de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war.
Education
Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics.
Career
He entered politics at the age of 20. After meeting Prime Minister Malan he was assigned as an organiser of the Nationalist Party in Cape Province. His next job was campaign manager in all four provinces from 1946 to 1948. His success in helping Malan to the first Nationalist victory since 1924 resulted in promotion to chief secretary of the party in Cape Province in 1948—a post he held for 10 years.
Dr Verwocrd gave Botha his first government appointment as Deputy Interior Minister to Dr T. E. Donges after the elections on April 16, 1958. Three years later he became Minister of Community Development and Minister for Coloured Affairs. His approach to the job was defined in classic terms: ‘The problem is not the Coloured people but the relationship between them and the whites.”
He took charge of the Defence Ministry at a very difficult time—six months after the British Labour government imposed an embargo on arms sales to South Africa which he condemned as “sheer madness”. It forced him to look for alternative supplies and he pulled off his first coup in April 1967 with France agreeing to supply three Daphne class 850-ton submarines. South Africa’s own arms development potential was exploited to the full when he established the country's first missile base for experimental tests at a 10-mile stretch of the Zululand coast about 150 miles from Durban. On December 17, 1968, he pressed the button for the first testfiring of a guided missile at St Lucia missile station.
Earlier that year, on April 3, 1968, he set the perimeter for counterterrorism at the Zambesi, saying: “Those countries which continue to maintain bases for terrorist activities against South Africa will be regarded as waging guerilla warfare against South Africa.”
His defence budget of JE390 million for the five years up to June 1974 gave a tremendous boost to weapon production and the morale of the armed forces. Arms production, which was taken over by the government from private enterprise, resulted in domestic supplies of the FN rifle, submachine guns, mortars and a 90 mm cannon.
Botha’s persistent emphasis upon British obligation* under the 1955 Simonstown Agreement was rewarded when the Conservatives won power in Britain in the June 1970 elections and abolished the arms embargo. Despite strong opposition from the Commonwealth, Britain accepted an order from Botha for British helicopters. On March 6, 1971, he took pride in proclaiming domestic arms self-sufficiency: “South Africa has achieved such a measure of self-sufficiency that it does not need any armaments from the outside world for its internal defence.”
Politics
He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party. However, with Allied victory looming in Europe, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism instead.
Membership
Pari, for George 1948-1984.
Personality
One of South Africa’s strong men with all the political craft necessary for a future prime minister, despite his lacking the traditional Transvaal background normally considered essential for the office. Close association with three prime ministers (Malan, Verwoerd and Vorster) has given Botha all the basic experience for leading his country one day.