There are a couple of South Africans in my office, so I asked them what their reaction is to the news of PW Botha's death.
They said it was roughly what my reaction would be to Thatcher's death but I don't believe them because they were not singing and dancing.
By the way, its time to put a stop to that stereotype perpetuated by the old Spitting Image song "I've Never Met A Nice South African". During the 80's and 90's I met quite a few South Africans in London and Sydney and they were all fine people. I found it hard to reconcile this with the facts of apartheid until I realised the obvious: the ones I met were the ones who couldn't stand staying in such a place and decided to move out to somewhere a bit more civilised.
I do sometimes wonder if the whole thing might have been ended sooner if the more liberal S.Africans had stayed at home and campaigned instead of avoiding the issue, but I can't really blame them for wanting to get away from it.
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…but if they had stayed at home, you never would have met them… and then the song would have remained true!