Botha, P. W.

born Jan. 12, 1916, Paul Roux, S.Af.

died Oct. 31, 2006, Wilderness, near George

in full Pieter Willem Botha prime minister (1978–84) and first state president (1984–89) of South Africa.

A native of the Orange Free State, he studied law at the University of Orange Free State at Bloemfontein from 1932 to 1935 but left without graduating. Already active in politics in his teens, he moved to Cape Province at age 20 to become a full-time organizer for the National Party. He was elected to Parliament in the National landslide of 1948. By 1958 he was deputy minister of the interior, and thereafter (1961–80) he was successively minister of commercial development, Coloured affairs, public works, and defense. He succeeded to the prime ministry upon the resignation of B.J. Vorster in 1978.

Botha's government faced serious foreign and domestic difficulties. The coming to power of black governments in Mozambique, Angola, and Zimbabwe gave new energy to black South African nationalists and the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO). Other developments led to frequent black student and labour unrest in South Africa itself, especially in 1980. Botha responded with a military policy that included frequent South African raids combined with support for antigovernment groups in the border states, seeking to weaken the Angolan, Mozambican, and Zimbabwean governments. Botha also refused to withdraw from Namibia, though he continued negotiations on the question.

He combined this foreign policy with a program of reforms at home—such as the policy of granting “independence” to various black homelands—that were meant at once to mollify international public opinion while dividing his nonwhite domestic opposition. A key point in this program was the promulgation of a new constitution, which granted very limited powers to Asians and Coloureds but which made no concessions to the black majority. Though the proposed reforms maintained white supremacy, to which Botha was fully committed, the right wing of the National Party split away in protest in 1982 to form the Conservative Party. Botha was still able to get the constitution passed by referendum of whites in 1983. The following year he was elected under the new constitution as state president by an electoral college selected from the racially segregated, white-dominated Parliament. During his term in office, Botha sought (with limited success) to find some middle ground between those who fully supported apartheid and the increasingly frustrated and militant nonwhite population; although his actions alienated many National Party supporters, they were not enough to appease those seeking the end of apartheid. Early in 1989 Botha fell ill and resigned his post as party leader, but he did not yield the presidency until he faced opposition not only from the National Party but from within his own Cabinet. He was succeeded by F.W. de Klerk, who introduced radical policy changes that led to the dismantling of the apartheid system and paved the way for the country's first multiracial elections in 1994.

In 1995 a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in South Africa to review atrocities committed during the apartheid years. Botha was summoned before the commission in 1997 but refused to participate. He was fined and received a suspended sentence, which was later appealed and overturned.

Boumedienne, Houari

born Aug. 23, 1927, Clauzel, near Guelma, Alg.

died Dec. 27, 1978, Algiers

original name Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukharouba army officer who became president of Algeria in July 1965 following a coup d'etat.

Boukharouba's service to Algeria began in the 1950s, during his country's struggle for independence from France, when, after studying at al-Azhar University in Cairo, he joined the rebel forces and adopted the name Houari Boumedienne. The rebels divided the country into military districts, and Boumedienne commanded the one around Oran. In 1960 he became chief of staff of the National Liberation Front, and he centred his efforts on raising an Algerian army in Morocco and Tunisia, out of reach of the French.

After a peace treaty was signed with France in March 1962, tension among the Algerian leaders increased, and that September Boumedienne occupied Algiers in support of Ahmed Ben Bella. Ben Bella became president later in the year, and Boumedienne was named minister of defense and vice president. Conflicts developed between the two leaders, and in June 1965 Boumedienne effected a coup against Ben Bella and installed himself as president. Boumedienne lacked widespread popular support, and he governed at first through a 26-member revolutionary council. As a result his leadership was weak and indecisive, but after an attempt by military officers to overthrow his regime failed in December 1967, he asserted his direct and undisputed leadership of Algeria.

In 1971 he imposed state control on the oil industry, at the cost of ending Algeria's special relationship with France. He risked war with Morocco in 1975 by trying to gain territorial access to the Atlantic across the Spanish Sahara (later Western Sahara). In 1976 his government issued a National Charter and then a new constitution, both adopted by referendum. Negotiating important industrial contracts with Western countries and at the same time maintaining close but independent relations with the Soviet bloc, Boumedienne became a leading figure in the nonaligned movement.