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.
…but if they had stayed at home, you never would have met them… and then the song would have remained true!