P.W. Botha, the iron-fisted former South African President.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters):

Former South African President P.W. Botha, the defiant face of white rule at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle, died at his home yesterday aged 90, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported.

"Botha died at home, peacefully," SAPA quoted a member of his security staff, Frikkie Lucas, as saying.

Botha, known widely as "The Great Crocodile" for his adamant stance against black rule in South Africa, died at his home in Wilderness, about 350km (220 miles) east of Cape Town, SAPA said.

In hospital

Botha, who presided over some of the worst excesses of the apartheid era during the 1970s and 1980s, had been in hospital in October for what was described as routine tests.

He was toppled in a Cabinet rebellion in 1989 and replaced by F.W. de Klerk, who repudiated almost everything the finger-wagging hardliner had stood for, including the laws that were the foundation of apartheid.

De Klerk later guided South Africa's white rulers through the delicate negotiations that ultimately brought the African National Congress (ANC), led by Nelson Mandela, to power in multi-racial elections in 1994.

Although Botha's security forces killed more than 2,000 people and an estimated 25,000 people were detained without trial and often tortured, he refused to apologise for apartheid and denied he had known about the torture and assassinations.