Apartheid leader P. W. Botha Resigns

P. W. Botha suffers a mild stroke and, on this day he announces his intention to resign the National Party presidency while remaining State President. His resignation shocks his colleagues and leads to an internal succession process in the party that culminates in the appointment of F. W. de Klerk. P.W. Botha presided over South Africa when violence and state suppression of resistance movements was at its height. Leading scholars in the field of civil-military relations came to call South Africa a praetorian state because under his leadership the Security Council and the military became far more involved in the daily running of the state.