Pik Botha

(1932-) Lawyer and National Party politician, Foreign Minister under successive prime-ministers and presidents (1977 to 1994). Roelof Frederik Botha (generally known as “Pik” Botha) was born in Rustenburg, Transvaal. He studied law at the University of Pretoria and then entered politics (see the entry on him in Wikipedia on this). In his youth he was an amateur and semi-professional actor (inter alia played Tiresias in Johan de Meester’s 1955 Afrikaans version of Oedipus Rex for NTO). Always a fine storyteller, he took to performing with other storytellers in “Stoepstories” at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) in Oudtshoorn after retirement.