Pik Botha

Botha was born at Rustenburg in the Transvaal,[5] to Roelof Frederik Botha and Maria Elizabeth Dreyer. At the age of four, he was struck by meningitis in Lourenço Marques (modern-day Maputo, Mozambique); he received treatment at a small hospital in Barberton, Transvaal, and his mother vowed that if he survived, he would become a church minister.[6]

Botha attended Paul Kruger Primary School, where his father was principal. He excelled in high school, becoming chairman of the debating society and officer in the school cadets.[6] Botha was also a writer of both prose and poetry in Afrikaans, and his writing supplemented his salary in his early years as a diplomat.[5] In his first year studying law at the University of Pretoria, a theologian explained to him that God would not expect him to keep his mother's promise to become a church minister.[6][7]

Botha began his career in the South African foreign service in 1953, serving in Sweden and West Germany.[5] From 1963 to 1966, he served on the team representing South Africa at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the matter of Ethiopia and Liberia v. South Africa, over the South African occupation of South-West Africa (now Namibia).[5]

In 1966, Botha was appointed legal adviser at the Department of Foreign Affairs, in which capacity he served on the delegation representing South Africa at the United Nations from 1967 to 1977.[5] In 1974, he was appointed South Africa's permanent representative to the United Nations[5] and presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim on 15 October 1974;[8] in November of that year, however, South Africa was suspended from membership of the General Assembly and, over the ensuing years, the country was excluded from official participation in virtually all of the UN's organs and agencies.[9]

In the elections of 1970 and 1974, Botha was elected to the House of Assembly as MP for Wonderboom in the Transvaal. In 1975, he was appointed South Africa's Ambassador to the United States, in addition to his UN post. In 1977, he re-entered Parliament as MP for Westdene, and was appointed minister for foreign affairs by Prime Minister B. J. Vorster. He continued to represent Westdene for the remainder of his political career.[10]

Botha entered the contest to be the leader of the National Party in 1978. He was allegedly considered Vorster's favourite and received superior public support among whites (We want Pik!) but withdrew after criticism concerning his young age, lack of experience (having spent 16 months as foreign minister) and alleged liberal beliefs as opposed to the ultra-conservative NP machinery (in which he lacked a significant position), instead throwing his support behind P. W. Botha, who was ultimately elected.[11]

In 1985, Botha helped to draft a speech that would have announced common decision-making on all levels in a single constitutional unit and a formula for bringing about the release of Nelson Mandela, but this draft was rejected by P. W. Botha.[12]

The next year, he stated publicly (during a press conference in Parliament, asked by German journalist Thomas Knemeyer) that it would be possible for South Africa to be ruled by a black president provided that there were guarantees for minority rights, but was quickly forced to acknowledge that this position did not reflect government policy.[13] Botha recalled in 2011 that he had been "severely reprimanded and almost fired" over his remarks.[14] In early 1986 he was also an instrumental figure in the South African government's negotiations with the Commonwealth Eminent Persons' Group (EPG). Although the Group's mission was aborted after the South African Military launched cross-border raids on ANC bases on 19 May, in the preceding months Pik Botha had engaged in extensive talks with the Group about a possible path to negotiations, including calls for a suspension of violence and the unbanning of the ANC.[15]

Throughout 1988 Botha was instrumental in lengthy peace talks between South Africa, Cuba, and the People's Republic of Angola aimed at ending the South African Border War. On 13 December 1988, Botha and Defence Minister Magnus Malan ratified the Brazzaville Protocol, which led to the effective cessation of hostilities in that conflict.[16]

Botha married Helena Bosman in 1953, with whom he had two daughters, Anna Hertzog and the artist Lien Botha as well as two sons, the rock musician Piet Botha (1955-2019) and the economist Roelof Botha.[24] Among Botha's eight grandchildren is grandson Roelof Botha, former CFO of PayPal.[24][25][26] Helena died in 1996, after having been ill, including being partially paralysed, following a fall in her home in 1991.[27] Two years later, Botha married Ina Joubert, a former journalist with the SABC.[5][28]

Botha died of natural causes at his home in Pretoria on 12 October 2018 at the age of 86.[29][30]

•  South Africa: Order of Good Hope in the Grand Cross Class (March 1980)
•  Taiwan: Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon (October 1980)
•  South Africa: Decoration for Meritorious Service (July 1981)[31]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roelof Frederik Botha.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Pik Botha.

• South African History Online
• South African Who's Who
• Interview with Roelof (‘Pik’) Botha by Tor Sellström within the project Nordic Documentation on the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa – dated 12 September 1995.