Obituary: Fanie Botha: Apartheid minister

Fanie Botha, who has died in Pretoria at the age of 88, was a senior government minister who broke the power of the white labour unions and played a key role in South Africa's nuclear weapons programme.

He served as minister of mineral and energy affairs, labour, and water affairs in the John Vorster and PW Botha governments.

A staunch rightwinger at the start of his political career, by the mid-'70s he had become a reformist. He appointed the Wiehahn Commission, which recommended the legalisation of black trade unions, and he oversaw the dismantling of apartheid labour laws, including job reservation on the mines. This brought him into head-on conflict with the extremely militant white Mine Workers Union, which threatened to plunge the country into a crisis like that of 1922 when striking white workers brought the country close to civil war.

In the '70s, Botha approved South Africa's nuclear weapons programme. He directed the top secret export of large amounts of uranium and tritium to Israel, which enabled the Israelis to build their nuclear bombs. In return, South Africa was given all the technical assistance it needed to build its own.

Botha was born in Lusaka in what was then northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on May 5 1922. His family had gone there to farm after the Anglo Boer War. He was educated at Paarl Boys' High in the Western Cape and at the University of Stellenbosch.

In 1955 he bought the first of three farms in the Soutpansberg and in 1958 became MP for that area. In 1968 his close friend and hunting partner John Vorster appointed him to his cabinet as deputy minister of agriculture. This was mildly ironic because his knowledge of the economics of farming brought him to the verge of bankruptcy.

To rescue his financial situation he solicited funds in return for West Coast diamond concessions which he never delivered.

He gave a handwritten note promising a concession to Brigadier Johann Blaauw. Blaauw was one of the leading military figures behind the nuclear weapons programme and the middleman in the exchange of materials, money and information between South Africa and Israel.

He was also a conduit for funds from Israel to help keep Botha afloat.

When Botha reneged on his promises, Blaauw threatened to take him to court. With this potentially massive scandal threatening to engulf him, he learnt that the Sunday Times was about to reveal the fact that his estate was insolvent.

He called Harry Oppenheimer, the boss of Anglo American - which owned the Sunday Times - to his office. He offered Oppenheimer lucrative diamond concessions in return for his help.

Oppenheimer liked Botha because in addition to being an engaging, genial and warm person who was offering him a hugely profitable deal, he was a reformist and had made it possible for mine owners to use blacks to do jobs whites had done, cheaper.

He spoke to the then Sunday Times editor, Tertius Myburgh, and the story was pulled. It was subsequently published in the Sunday Express and Botha was made to resign immediately, in November 1983.

He is survived by five children. His wife, Martina, died in 2006.