Roelof Frederik ‘Pik’ Botha, a key figure during South Africa’s transition from the apartheid era has died at the age of 86.

Mr. Botha, who spent most of his career defending the white minority government served as the country’s Foreign Minister for 17 years until the end of the apartheid era in 1994.

He also served as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs in Nelson Mandela’s first post-apartheid government, a period during which he reportedly praised Mandela as being a healing figure.

Confirming his demise on Friday, Botha’s son, Piet told South African media that his father died on Thursday night.

“His wife Ina was with him until the end. He was very sick during the last three weeks and his body just couldn’t take it anymore,” Piet added.

Born in 1932 in Rustenburg, Transvaal, Botha’s nickname, Pik comes from his resemblance to a Penguin or Pikkewyn in his mother tongue, Afrikaans.

Described by some as a ‘good man working for a bad government’, Botha began his diplomatic career in the South African mission in Stockholm, Sweden in 1953 and turned to politics in the 1970s.

 

His profile rose when he was made an envoy to the United States and United Nations before he assumed the post of Foreign Minister in 1977, serving mainly under P W Botha, to whom he was not related .

He had several clashes with the hard line government of then president P W Botha. In 1985, he drafted a speech that suggested that Mandela could be released from prison but that did not happen until 1990.

The following year he said that the country could one day be ruled by a black president, a statement which earned him a public rebuke from his principal.