Skip to content

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 do not want chaos in South Africa.

We are a strong country in a rather sick world. … Our problems are not so much racial as radicals wish to make them.

Many refugees – White, Brown and Black – flee to South Africa. Why? Here they know they have safety.

We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We are not prophets. This is a step in the dark. We can only proceed into the future with faith.

I believe we are today crossing the Rubicon, Mr Chairman. In South Africa there can be no turning back. I have a manifesto for the future of our country and we must engage in positive action in the months and years that lie ahead.

With the withdrawal of Britain east of the Suez and the consequent vacuum caused in the Middle East, and the stocking of arsenals in some African states by Russia and China, the dangers threatening South Africa today are greater than ever before.

No more mine-laying. No more murder. No more abduction of women and children. No more attacks on headmen. No more raids across the border. So long as these conditions do not exist there will be no withdrawal [from South-West Africa] of South African troops.

... I am not prepared to build the type of wall you built in Berlin. In South Africa we only build walls for houses.

I am one of those who believe that there is no permanent home for even a section of the Bantu in the white area of South Africa and the destiny of South Africa depends on this essential point. If the principle of permanent residence for the black man in the area of the white is accepted then it is the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it in this country.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: P. W. Botha (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.