Release of nationalist leader turns spotlight on Mandela

Press, 7 November 1987, Page 12

Release of nationalist leader turns spotlight on Mandela

NZPA-Reuter Port Elizabeth South Africa has freed a black nationalist, Govan Mbeki, after 23 years and pressure is now expected to mount on the whiteled Government to release Nelson Mandela.

Mbeki, aged 77, and Mandela, aged 69, fellow leaders of the African National Congress (A.N.C.) have become international symbols of opposition to apartheid since they and six others were jailed for life in 1964 for plotting to overthrow white rule. In a surprise announcement, the Justice Minister, Kobie Coetsee, said yesterday South Africa was releasing Mbeki and four other black political prisoners. Mbeki was freed from the top-security Robben Island prison. At a hastily-arranged news conference, Mbeki said he was concerned that his close friend Mandela was still behind bars.

“But I am confident my release has brought Mr Mandela’s release closer,” he said. With Mbeki free, the spotlight will focus even more strongly on Mandela. The Government has now dropped its insistence that political prisoners must renounce violence before being freed, a condition that has barred Mandela's release in the past. Andries Treurnicht, leader of the far-right Conservative Party, said the Government had set a dangerous precedent by releasing Mbeki without conditions. “If Mbeki is released, then Mandela is also knocking at the door,” he said.

Mbeki, after his release, remained unrepentant. “The ideas for which I went to jail and for which the A.N.C. stands, I still embrace. I am still a Communist Party member and I still embrace Marxist views,” he said. After leaving Robben Island, he said, he had been taken to Cape Town’s Pollsmoor prison for a medical check-up and had also met Mandela. Government officials said that because Mbeki was a communist, the news conference would be his last chance to air his views in the South African press. In future, he will be a “listed” person — banned from being quoted by the local media. Pretoria said it was

releasing four other black political prisoners — John Nkosi, Michael Matsobane, Zisozoke Tshikila and Tom Masuku — all of whom have served long jail sentences. Also freed were two members of a white neoNazi movement, jailed in 1983 for sabotage. Black leaders and antiapartheid groups in South Africa welcomed Mbeki’s release, but said they would continue pressing for the release of other political prisoners. In Lusaka, headquarters of the exiled organisation, hundreds of A.N.C. members clapped and danced to celebrate Mbeki’s release, and spokesmen described it as an important victory.