Maybe, but that wasn’t going to happen. It’s not enough for you to win the victory, you have to win converts?
As has already been noted, it happened to George Wallce. Robert Byrd, too.
First, “win the victory?”
Second, like most civil rights struggles, the only way to “win the victory” is by winning converts. The more people who are converted, the quicker and easier the integration of the disadvantaged group into mainstream society, even after the main struggle is settled. There are still racist elements in SA society that would love to see a return of apartheid. Had Botha, regarded by much of the world as the face of apartheid, come around at the end, it would have been yet another blow against the legitimacy and appeal of such philosophies.
Third, it strikes me as eminently appropriate, even charitable, to wish that someone who believed in and supported a manifest evil had mended their ways before they died.
And finally, there’s nothing remotely admirable about holding to an evil or unjust ideal in the face of concentrated opposition. Consistency is not a virtue in and of itself. You’ve basically suggested, in this thread, that Botha deserves a measure of respect for being really dedicated to racism. He does not. The greater his dedication to racism, the more scorn he deserves. The longer his dedication, the longer his name should be cursed.
I’m saying that Botha deserves a measure of respect for honesty. If he really didn’t believe there was anything wrong with apartheid and his actions, and all evidence shows he didn’t, I’m saying it’s good that he didn’t pretend he believed there was.
Sorry to double post, but I just thought of a story about Lyndon Johnson. There’s a story that Johnson said that, after he signed the Civil Rights Act, the first thing he’d do was “go down to South Carolina and watch Strom Thurmond kiss all the black ass he can find.”
Thurmond, Wallace, Byrd, and so many more were perfectly willing to zealously advocate for segregation when it was popular, and then, when the people they had spent their time advocating discrimination against were able to vote, they realized how terrible their old views were.
It puts me in mind of the convict who finds Jesus right before his parole hearing. I’m glad for change, but the timing is really convenient.