Mandela imprisoned 25 years

Press, 6 August 1987, Page 6

Mandela imprisoned 25 years

NZPA-AFP Johannesburg

Nelson Mandela marked his twenty-fifth year behind bars yesterday — a quarter of a century during which, by virtue of his enforced inactivity, he has become an international political legend.

For many years, the name of Mandela was hardly heard outside informed black political circles. Then in the early 1980 s, a resurgent domestic anti-apartheid movement revived it as a symbol of black liberation.

Now, the release of Mandela is seen as the

minimum condition for black-white negotiations, but Mandela himself has refused offers- of conditional freedom which would shrink the symbolic power of his name. On August 5, 1962, Mandela, known as the “Black Pimpernel” for having evaded arrest for 16 months as public enemy No. 1, was finally caught at a police roadblock after, apparently, having been betrayed by an informer.

At that time, aged 44, he was second in charge of the African National Congress (A.N.C.), founded in 1912 to resist the white minority rule

bequeathed to South Africa when Britain granted its independence in 1910. But since the A.N.C. president, Albert Lutuli, winner of the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize, had been banned from political activity, Mandela was in fact the leader of black resistance.

Mandela was also head of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed wing of the A.N.C., formed in 1961, the year after the Government forced the A.N.C. underground. Umkhonto aimed at sabotaging military and civilian installations becaus«L the A.N.C.’s non-

violent approach had been abandoned as useless.

In 1985, with Mandela’s fame at its peak, President Pieter Botha offered to release him if he gave his unconditional rejection of violence. The offer has been repeated several times since then.

Mandela rejected this offer. He laid down his own conditions: the unbanning of the A.N.C., the freeing of all political prisoners, the unhindered return of all political exiles, the renunciation of violence by the Government in enforcing white rule, and a pledge to dismantle apartheid.

The stalemate remains, and one of. the most burning political questions in South Africa remains: What will happen when they release Mandela? Although the patriarch is in good health, he is ageing. His death in prison could unleash unprecedented violence in South Africa, and create a powerful political martyr. It is also argued, however, that if he is released, he could become a target for assassination by the extreme white right, or any of the various rival currents of black politics seeking to destabilise the country.