Talking to the Enemy – Prisoner Mandela Engages PW Botha
On 5 July 1989, Nelson Mandela was taken in the middle of a five-car convoy to apartheid President P.W. Botha’s office at Tuynhuys, the early Cape Dutch home that is situated alongside the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town. When Mandela entered the room, there were the Justice Minister, Kobie Coetsee and Niël Barnard, the Head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), along with a host of prison officials.
A while later the door to the adjoining office opened, where Mandela was ushered in and apartheid President Botha walked from the other side, smiling broadly with his hands outstretched. They met halfway and posed for a picture shaking hands, as everybody left except for General Willemse, Kobie Coetsee and Niël Barnard, who joined Botha and Mandela at the long table for tea.
Mandela began by saying he read an article in an Afrikaans magazine about the occupation of a town in the Free State during the 1914 Afrikaner Rebellion. He said that saw parallels between that struggle and that of Black South Africans. They then got to discussions about the rebellion. According to Mandela, “South African history, of course, looks different to the black man and the white man. Their view was that the rebellion had been a quarrel between brothers, whereas my struggle was a revolutionary one. I said that it could also be seen as a struggle between brothers who happen to be different colours”.
Passionately, Bot
