... had previously studied medicine in the USA, and practised in Britain until 1953. As leader of the pro–Western bloc in Africa, he supported women's rights, maintained a good education system and improved the country's infrastructure. But he supported apartheid–era South Africa, and his regime is believed to have murdered thousands of political opponents. His one–party state was ended by a referendum in 1993, his life–term presidency was ended, and he was stripped of most of his powers.
He ran for president in the democratic elections that followed, but was defeated. He was tried in 1995 for the murder of three of his Cabinet ministers ten years previously, but acquitted due to lack of evidence. He died in South Africa in 1997, aged 99.
© Haydn Thompson 2017