Pik Botha, who has died aged 86, was a towering figure in apartheid South Africa.

Millions of South Africans saw him as the man who, as foreign minister, defended to the world the brutal system of racial oppression that the white-minority regime enforced until it lost power in 1994.

But to many others he was seen as a liberal among white supremacist hardliners.

At one point, he was the longest serving foreign minister in the world, having spent 17 years in the post.

His name was Roelof Frederik. His nickname Pik came from his resemblance to a penguin, which in his mother tongue Afrikaans is known as pikkewyn.

It may not sound shocking now, but it took some guts in 1986 to tell his all-white male cabinet colleagues that South Africa will have a black president one day.

In his deep baritone voice, Botha once gave the stereotypical explanation of political correctness to defend apartheid: "Some of my best friends are black."

His other quote that still rings fresh in my mind is: "South Africa is like a zebra. It doesn’t matter whether you shoot the white or black stripe, the whole animal dies."