JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela led South Africans on Wednesday in paying tribute to former President P.W. Botha, the defiant face of apartheid who doggedly clung to white rule and refused to free Mandela from jail.
News of Botha's death at age 90 at his home on Tuesday prompted an outpouring of conciliatory statements from President Thabo Mbeki's government and others who had fought to wipe away his regime's strict racial divisions and embrace the multi-racial reconciliation embodied by Mandela.