S Africa flags at half-staff for apartheid leader

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 3 (Reuters) South African flags flew at half-staff in a tribute to hardline apartheid leader P.W. Botha who died on tuesday aged 90.

Botha oversaw one of the most brutal periods of apartheid, including the state-sanctioned murder and torture of activists and devastating raids into neighbouring states that backed the anti-apartheid movement.

After his death Botha was also praised for taking the first steps towards moving the country towards a peaceful transition from apartheid -- though many still remembered with bitterness the brutality of his rule.

Much of the three decades Nelson Mandela spent as a political prisoner was under Botha's rule. But the first leader of a democratic South Africa, revered for preaching racial unity over revenge, was among the first to honour Botha.

Mandela said Botha's death should serve as a reminder of ''how South Africans from all persuasions ultimately came together to save our country from self-destruction''.

Others were less forgiving and some South Africans questioned the government's decision to honour Botha with the offer of a state funeral, which his family has declined.

''His hands were stained with the blood of hundreds who were murdered during the struggle for democracy and liberation under his presidency,'' the COSATU union said in a statement yesterday..

''Any small reforms which occurred during P W Botha's presidency took place in spite of rather than because of his intentions,'' said the group, which campaigned for many banned political parties at the height of anti-apartheid resistance in the 1980s.

Botha ordered army crackdowns to quell township protests against his government, but later initiated secret talks with the African National Congress (ANC) which eventually led to democracy under Mandela.

After the first all-race poll marking the end of apartheid in 1994, Botha was angry about what he called his people's isolation in the ''new'' South Africa and rejected the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to probe apartheid abuses.

South Africa's presidency said in a statement his family had turned down a state funeral but flags at government buildings would fly at half-staff from yesterday until his November 8 funeral.

Books of condolences were set out at the Union Buildings the seat of government in the capital Pretoria, and the official residence Tuynhuys outside parliament in Cape Town.

The book in Pretoria had 12 signatures while the book in Cape Town had none, the SAPA news agency said.

Botha ruled as prime minister and then president from 1978 to 1989, when he was ousted in a cabinet rebellion.

He retired to Wilderness, a quiet town 350 km east of Cape Town where the old South African flag still flew outside his home.

REUTERS SHB VC1042