Mr Botha was regarded as a relic and someone stuck in a bit of a time warp, correspondents say. In the 1990s, Mr Botha was summoned to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel set up by then President Mandela’s government to probe abuses.

The panel concluded in 1998 that Mr Botha was guilty of gross human rights violations.

Thousands were detained without trial during his presidency, while others were tortured and killed. However, he refused to apologise for apartheid.

Although some cosmetic reforms were introduced in 1983, allowing the Asian and mixed-race communities into parliament, Mr Botha made no headway in terms of advancing political freedom.

He imposed a state emergency in 1986 after South Africa’s black majority did not accept his reforms.

Mr Botha failed to satisfy those on either side of the country’s racial divide – or international opinion – and eventually resigned after a power struggle within his cabinet.

He led a quiet life with his second wife, Barbara, in the seaside village of Wilderness, about 350km (220 miles) east of Cape Town, for almost two decades. In an interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he ran the country. Mr Mandela’s statement said: “While to many Mr Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country.”

THUNDERBIRD

<B>P W Botha: The ‘Great Crocodile’</B>

■ In August this year the former South African president Pieter Willem Botha was found guilty of contempt against the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). After a lengthy trial, the 82-year-old was fined 10,000 rand and given a 12-month suspended jail term. Mr Botha was charged after he failed to attend a TRC hearing in Cape Town on December 19, 1997. The commission wanted to question him about allegations that he headed a state-sponsored strategy to silence anti-apartheid activists while in office. PW Botha was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984, and President from 1984 to 1989. In that time he always refused to make any concessions to the black population or to hostile international opinion.

From its inception, Mr Botha rallied against the TRC, rejecting it as a “circus” and a “witching” against anti-apartheid leaders and State Security Force (SSC) members. Last year he declared: “I have nothing to apologise for. I will never ask for amnesty (from the TRC). Not now, not tomorrow, not after tomorrow.” That belligerence was a hallmark of his rule. Ordinary South Africans knew him as “the Great Crocodile”. He once famously remarked: “When I am angry, I can be a Thunderbird.”