P.W. Botha; President of Apartheid-Era South Africa

In this period, he sometimes fought against the most outrageously racist voices in his party on social and land issues. As defense minister, he championed a liberalization of the military that brought women and those of mixed race into fighting units.

Elected prime minister in 1978, he advocated a program of "adapt or die" that surprised many white South Africans for its reformist ring. This approach was partly because of the moderating influences of a strong political challenger during the election. However, to many blacks, Mr. Botha's efforts appeared cosmetic, and many in his white base charged him with surrendering needlessly.

Radical elements within his party abandoned him in 1982 to form another political party. Soon after, Mr. Botha helped craft a new national constitution that bestowed greater authority to himself by changing his title to state president. During the next few years, he repealed some restrictive laws, including a ban on interracial marriage and a passport system that prevented blacks from living freely away from their designated townships.

He allowed participation by Asians and those of mixed race in Parliament and the national cabinet, but blacks were still excluded from government. A goodwill tour of Europe in 1984 had little effect of changing the country's pariah status, although some Western governments and businesses maintained economic ties. He also eased his diplomatic relations with neighboring countries, nearly all of which were under black rule after having gained independence years earlier.

As rioting continued, he declared a state of emergency in 1986, curbing press freedoms and arresting black political leaders.

After a stroke in 1989, Mr. Botha resisted calls within his own party to resign. "I am not a sulking old man," he said.

In a matter of months, he arranged a meeting at his official Cape Town home with Nelson Mandela, a leader with the banned African National Congress who was serving a long prison sentence.

Mandela later wrote in a memoir that Mr. Botha broke all expectations of the "old-fashioned, stiff-necked, stubborn Afrikaner who did not so much discuss matters with black leaders as dictate to them." He said the president was amicable and smiling and "completely disarmed me," although he declined to agree to the unconditional release of Mandela and other political prisoners.

Within months, Mr. Botha resigned from the presidency and his party. Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and worked with Mr. Botha's successor, F.W. de Klerk, to hold fair elections. In 1994, Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.

During the new era, Mr. Botha was not allowed to retire quietly. Anglican Archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, who headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, personally asked Mr. Botha to testify about allegations of bombing campaigns against black rights groups during his presidency.

Mr. Botha declined to recognize the commission's authority to compel him to testify. Instead, he gave the commission 1,700 pages of answers to their questions.

This led to a court's finding him guilty of contempt and sentencing him to either a year in jail or a fine of $1,600. He avoided the penalty when a higher court said the commission's legal mandate to exist was due to expire before he was called to testify.

At the time, Mr. Botha told reporters he was more worried about the lawlessness he saw around him under the new government. "I'm still concerned about the onslaught," he said. "What I prophesied came true."

He wrote an autobiography, "Voice in the Wilderness."

His first wife, Elize Rossouw, whom he married in 1943, died in 1997. The next year, he married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior. She survives him, along with five children from his first marriage.