P. W. Botha Quotes

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

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.

The acceptance of vertical differentiation with the built-in principle of self-determination must apply on as many levels as possible.

Our history is responsible for the differences in the South African way of life.

Nelson Mandela can rot in prison until he dies or I die, whichever takes longer.

I have been to Switzerland before but not to this <nowiki>[</nowiki>Paul Kruger's] house or to a Swiss bank.

There is only one element that can break the Afrikaner … and that is the Afrikaner himself.

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.

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.

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 never have the nagging doubt of wondering whether perhaps I am wrong.

Half a century ago in this court I was sworn in as the Member of Parliament for George. And here I am today … I am not better than General De Wet. I am not better than President Steyn. Like them I stand firm in my principles. I can do no different. So help me God.

I am sick and tired of the hollow parrot-cry of “Apartheid!” I’ve said many times that the word “Apartheid” means good neighbourliness.

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.

The free world wants to feed South Africa to the Red Crocodile [communism], to appease its hunger.