And in South Africa, former apartheid president P.W. Botha has died at the age of ninety. Botha vigorously defended the apartheid system which lead to the jailing of tens of thousands of people. He never repented or apologized for his actions and resisted attempts to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

P.W. Botha: “I am not going to repent. I am not going to ask for forgiveness. What I did, I did for my country.”

In a statement, Nelson Mandela, who spent 11 of his 27 years in prison under Botha’s rule, described him as a “symbol of apartheid”, but said he took steps towards an “eventual peacefully negotiated settlement” in South Africa.