S.A. turns deaf ear to Mandela appeals

Press, 20 July 1988, Page 10

S.A. turns deaf ear to Mandela appeals

NZPA-Reuter Cape Town

The South African Government has refused to free the jailed black nationalist, Nelson Mandela, in spite of a chorus of international appeals for his release coinciding with his seventieth birthday. “No matter how much international pressure is brought upon us, we have to live with the consequences of our actions,” the Information Minister, Stoffel Van der Merwe, said as Mandela spent his birthday yesterday alone in a Cape Town prison cell.

“The situation precludes the Government

from considering the release of Mr Mandela,” Mr Van der Merwe said on State-run television.

He said he hoped Mandela could be freed one day. The Government was keeping the issue under review.

It was the Government’s first direct response to pleas from dozens of countries, including the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, Japan and West Germany, to free Mandela, who is serving a life sentence for plotting to overthrow white rule. He has been 26 years in jail.

Otherwise the Government and the State-run

broadcasting services kept silent about the birthday of the African National Congress leader, while police stifled most public attempts to mark the anniversary inside South Africa. Over the week-end the authorities banned pop music concerts planned in Durban and outside Johannesburg and joggers wearing Mandela T-shirts were detained. Yesterday police with batons chased students holding a birthday rally at the mainly-white University of Cape Town and riot police surrounded a church where 800 people held a service.