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P. W. Botha Quotes
1916–2006
Pieter Willem Botha (January 12, 1916 – October 31, 2006), commonly known as "PW", was the prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president from 1984 to 1989.
Also known as: P.W. Botha, PW Botha, Pieter Willem Botha
Random P. W. Botha quote
49 quotes
We dare not see ourselves as a chosen people. We are called people - called to a particular task, just as every nation is a called people.
It should be noted that refugees are crossing the border from southern Angola to South-West Africa – not the other way round. There is no aggression from our side.
Knowing [Mandela] will start up with violence again, I, as a responsible head of state, must release him so that he can carry on with his violence, and then arrest him? What a nonsensical argument.
The people who are opposing the policy of apartheid have not the courage of their convictions. They do not marry non-Europeans.
There is not an Indian community in the world that is better off than the Indians in South Africa. That is the type of apartheid that I stand for. That is the type of apartheid that is not dead.
I want to warn young people who lend their ears to radicals and who play around with the music from Lusaka - they will end up inside the bear's fur coat, but they will no longer be able to live.
Nelson Mandela can rot in prison until he dies or I die, whichever takes longer.
I hate no black man. I hate no brown man. The same God that made me put them there too. My God is not only for Afrikaners.
Mandela has overstepped the mark. He has broken the law. The judiciary of this country has put him where he belongs according to the rules of democracy.
I am not against the provision of the necessary medical assistance to Coloured and natives, because, unless they receive that medical aid, they become a source of danger to the European community.
No Prime Minister before me has been attacked more viciously than I am today.
You could not claim for yourself that which you were not prepared to grant others.
The separation of races happened long before the Nationalist Government. God separated the races.
The fact is that the Westminster system has not worked anywhere in Africa – not even in England because the Scots and Welsh are moving away from it.
The white people who came here lived at a very much higher standard than the indigenous peoples, and with a very rich tradition which they brought with them from Europe.
Unfortunately [South Africa] has been badly repaid for her loyalty because the West has expelled her from the family circle while befriending the most dictatorial regimes on Earth.
I have come to the realisation and conviction that the struggle in South Africa is not between White, Black and Brown, but between Christian civilized standards and the powers of chaos.
I feel more welcome among the black communities than I do among Coloureds
The security and happiness of all minority groups in South Africa depend on the Afrikaner. Whether they are English- or German- or Portuguese- or Italian-speaking, or even Jewish-speaking, makes no difference.
We do not force people to move to new homes, we coerce them. [Some believe he meant to say "convince"]
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