'Crocodile' Rocked
CAPE TOWN: The "great crocodile" appears to have caught himself in a trap
of his own making. In choosing to hang tough and reject a deal allowing
secret testimony to South Africa's Truth Commission, former president P.W.
Botha found himself defending a contempt of court case that will likely
cover the same ground. "In the end, Botha's simply doing it the hard way,"
says TIME Johannesburg bureau chief Peter Hawthorne. "The commission will
present all the evidence against him in order to explain why he was
subpoenaed, and Botha will have to respond to that evidence. But the result
of his stubbornness is that he has to do it in court, when the Truth
Commission were offering him a private hearing." His defiance, however,
isn't surprising -- Botha is one of the few leaders of the old regime who
hasn't bothered to shed crocodile tears over apartheid.