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Former President Pieter W. Botha, the last strongman of the apartheid system of racial separation, may be headed behind bars after refusing Friday to appear at a public hearing into secret police activities in the 1980s.
In a high-stakes showdown that some fear will worsen already strained relations between blacks and whites, officials from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked authorities to charge Botha with contempt of court after he stood them up at their Cape Town headquarters. A decision by the local attorney general's office is expected in two weeks.
It was only the second time in its two-year history that the controversial truth commission--a special government body delving into crimes of the apartheid era--has pushed for criminal charges against an uncooperative witness. Other reluctant participants, most recently Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, have put up a fight but have submitted to commission inquiries.
The move to charge Botha is particularly sensitive because it comes just days after President Nelson Mandela, in a racially charged address to the ruling African National Congress, harshly criticized white South Africans for protecting their positions of privilege and doing little to reconcile with the black majority. The speech, hailed as accurate by blacks, brought calls of reverse racism from many whites.
"Pursuing Mr. Botha as a criminal will do a lot of harm for black-white relations in this country, because people...