Former South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha will be buried today in Pretoria.
He died at the age of 86 almost a fortnight ago.
Around the world he was seen as the public face of apartheid, having served as foreign minister for 17 years, and a staunch defender of white-minority rule, but he was also seen as a liberal who aided the transition to democracy.
His family has said they have no knowledge of an offer of a state funeral by the government, SABC reports.
Botha stepped down as foreign minister in 1994 at the end of apartheid, but also served as a minister in Nelson Mandela’s first post-apartheid government, praising Mandela as a healing figure.
Botha’s legacy is contested, some remembering him as an unrepentant defender of apartheid and others seeing him as a reformer.
