Firstly, I am in no way defending him. But in the spirit of open debate...
He may have been brought up in a time and in an environment where he genuinely thought there was nothing wrong with his treatment of black africans (he seemed to be accepting of other races). Is this his fault, or the fault of his upbringing? In the same way perhaps, as my grandparents generation was ditrusting of Germans?
I went to a school that seemed to be racist. As schoolboys do, punch-ups often happened in the playground. Everytime I hit someone of ethnic origin, no punishment was given. Hit one of the white kids, and I was in big trouble. Disgusting. (I should point out I was not racist, I just hit whoever pissed me off that day). And to think this school was that racist even in the 1980s....
As stated, I in no way defend him, or agree with him, or even understand what happened (I was probably too young at the time, and only saw the (biased?) media coverage). And the world is a better place without him.
Whilst it would appear there is still a lot of race hate in South Africa at the moment, I appears the situation is getting better, which is good.