Pik Botha

Roelof Frederik " Pik " Botha (* April 27, 1932 in Rustenburg, Transvaal ) was from 1977 to 1994 Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Africa. He is married and has with his last wife, Helene four children. He is not related to the former South African President Pieter Willem Botha.

Life

After studying philosophy and law in Pretoria he worked since 1953 in the Foreign Service, for example, in Sweden and Germany. 1965/66 he represented the South African government as a legal consultant on South West Africa before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. 1968 to 1970 he occupied the position of Under-Secretary at the Foreign Ministry. After that, he was elected a deputy of the National Party.

In 1974, Botha was permanent representative of the South African government at the UN since 1975, and Ambassador to the United States. After the election in 1977 to the Parliament he was appointed in May of the year to the Secretary of State. On the one hand Pik Botha always advocated the peaceful resolution of all problems of South Africa and ending the long-standing policy of apartheid, on the other hand, he was considered one of the main representatives of the so-called separate development of non-whites and whites in the state, with separate freedom. In the 1980s he made with his statement that he could one day introduce a black president in South Africa, stir; He was immediately rebuked by its President Pieter Willem Botha.

From 1994 to 1996 he was Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in the government of national unity under Nelson Mandela. In 2000, he joined the African National Congress.