Pik Botha: Key figure in South Africa's apartheid transition dies
[ad_1] Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Pik Botha, in a 2013 BBC interview, praises Nelson Mandela A key figure during South Africa's transition from the apartheid era, Pik Botha, has died at the age of 86. Mr Botha served as his country's foreign minister for 17 years until the end of the apartheid era in 1994. He spent most of his career defending the apartheid system, even though he was regarded as a liberal figure. But he also served as a minister in Nelson Mandela's first post-apartheid government, praising Mr Mandela as a healing figure. Mr Botha's son, Piet, confirmed to South African media that his father had died during the night. Roelof Frederik Botha was born in 1932 in Rustenburg, Transvaal. He began his diplomatic career in the South African mission in Stockholm in 1953 and turned to politics in the 1970s. His profile rose as he became an envoy to the US and UN, then assumed the post of foreign min...