Thursday, November 09, 2006 Edition 2 - The Star Online
Melanie Gosling
Well over 1 000 people crammed into the imposing Moederkerk with its massive stinkwood pulpit and domed yellowwood ceiling for the funeral of apartheid-era state president P W Botha.
About 200 others filled a marquee in the grounds of the Dutch Reformed Church in George in the Western Cape where they watched yesterday's service on TV.
Almost all were white, almost all were Afrikaans-speaking and most were elderly.
Botha was laid to rest in a small graveyard in the hills above his hometown of Wilderness after a service in which the focus was more on religion than on politics.
Before the service, the coffin stood below the pulpit.
A group of musicians played quietly while the packed congregation, most of whom had taken up their seats when the doors opened at 1pm, waited for the service to begin.
Pews to the left were reserved for dignitaries, and F W de Klerk and wife Elita were first to arrive.
Just before 2pm, President Thabo Mbeki and wife Zanele slipped in almost unnoticed from a side door to sit next to De Klerk.
When Botha's wife, Barbara, and his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren filed in, the congregation rose.
The stillness inside the church was broken by the blast of a ram's horn, which belonged to Botha. He apparently loved its sound.
There was some murmuring and gesturing when Botha's grandson, wheelchair-bound Pierre Maritz, was wheeled into the church and placed in front of Mbeki.
When the president realised they were trying to move Maritz elsewhere, he stepped out of the pew, smiled, put his hand on the young man's shoulder and bent to speak to him.
"He said to me 'No, no, you must stay here, please'," Maritz said later.
Rev Bill Barkley, who conducted the service, said although Botha had been a president, he had always been deeply conscious of God, who was the true ruler of all.
"God rules," Barkley said. "Are you ready to meet God?" he asked the congregation.
As the service ended, De Klerk shook hands with the family in the church, while Botha's daughter Rozanne went across to Mbeki and his wife and hugged them.
De Klerk left immediately after the funeral, but Mbeki and acting Western Cape Premier Leonard Ramatlakane joined the family and congregation in the church hall for tea and refreshments.