Cocoa Tea – President Botha (1988)

By 1988, the year this rare and historic 45-speed record by Cocoa Tea was published, the beleaguered Apartheid regime in South Africa was under intense pressure both internally (even by Afrikaner bastions previously committed to racial segregation, like the University of Stellenbosch) and externally (as this recording shows). Even though Botha was considered a difficult individual to deal with, he did ease some of the more onerous terms of Apartheid, for example the ban on mixed marriages. Unfortunately he could not bring himself to go the whole way.

Cocoa Tea’s recording of “President Botha” turned out to be quite prophetic, as P.W. Botha was ousted as president the very next year by a group of liberal members from the ruling party under leadership of F.W. de Klerk, who in short order released Nelson Mandela and scrapped the Apartheid system for good.

Botha’s death in 2006 was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Nelson Mandela credited him by saying, “while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country.” President Thabo Mbeki ruled that flags would be flown at half staff, and offered a state funeral to his family (who declined). Mbeki, who had lost a brother, a son and a cousin during apartheid, attended the funeral and was even seen to shed a tear or two.

View a live bootlegged (?) version here: http://youtu.be/rdUubPgoaKM

More about Cocoa Tea:
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p29887/biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_Tea

More about P.W. Botha:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._W._Botha