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Pieter Willem Botha, DMS (12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as "P. W." and ''Die Groot Krokodil'' (Afrikaans for "The Big Crocodile"), 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. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned the leadership of the ruling National Party in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was coerced to leave the presidency as well. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 referendum Botha campaigned for a ''No'' vote and denounced de Klerk's administration as irresponsible by opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he was supported by the right-wing Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for crimes against human rights. Shortly before his death in late 2006, he renewed his opposition towards egalitarian democracy in favour of a confederate system based upon the principles of "separate development".〔Interview made in 2006; https://vimeo.com/18610881〕 ==Early life== 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. 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. 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.〔(P. W. Botha, Defender of Apartheid, Is Dead at 90 ), ''New York Times'', 1 November 2006〕 In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「P. W. Botha」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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