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 CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Former President Nelson Mandela said Wednesday the death of P.W. Botha, the apartheid-era leader who resisted pressure to release him from prison in the 1980s, should serve as a reminder of South Africa's "horribly divided past."
However, Mandela added, it should also evoke how all citizens ultimately came together to save the country from destruction, the South African Press Association reported.
"While to many Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way toward the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country," said Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison before Botha's successor, F.W. de Klerk, freed him in 1990.
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