Row over Botha legal aid

A row has broken out in South Africa over the payment of legal aid to the former president P W Botha who has refused to appear before the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The BBC Southern Africa correspondent says it appears the government had approved a substantially higher rate for Mr Botha's lawyers than that given to other Commmission witnesses in the hope this would persuade him to testify.

Our correspondent says the reported personal intervention of President Mandela in authorising a higher level of aid for Mr Botha has prompted an angry reaction.

The Pan Africanist Congress party said it was disgraceful. .

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service