A Road to Peace

...“While to many Mr Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the peacefully negotiated settlement in our country,” Mr Mandela, 88, said. “His death should remind us how South Africans ultimately came together to save our country from self-destruction.”

The black-dominated African National Congress was banned and exiled throughout the time Mr Botha was Prime Minister and then President, from 1978 to 1989...

...Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, ordered flags to be flown at half-mast from today. He said that Mr Botha had “realised South Africans had no alternative but to reach out to one another”. Mr Mbeki’s son and brother are both believed to have been killed by apartheid agents...

...During the Government of Margaret Thatcher — who denounced Mr Mandela, Mr Mbeki and the ANC as terrorists — Mr Mbeki met about 20 members of the Afrikaner ruling elite at Mells Castle, near Bath, for highly secret talks from 1987 to 1990, with the blessing of Mrs Thatcher and British Intelligence.

They discussed conditions for Mr Mandela’s release and held constitutional talks. Technically Mr Mbeki’s “terrorist” ANC and the “ostracised” Afrikaners were at war. But in the English West Country, talking over South African brandy and cigars into the small hours, the two sides planned peace...