Restaurant’s fate alarms Mandela

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 57

Restaurant’s fate alarms Mandela

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg The black nationalist leader, Nelson Mandela, alarmed by the news that his favourite curry restaurant in Johannesburg might close before he leaves prison, has written to its owners expressing his dismay. “There are many palates and tummies inside and outside the country which will justifiably be outraged by the disastrous news,” Mandela wrote to Madanjit and Marjorie Kapitan, whose restaurant will be demolished.

“During the past 27 years we have lost so many dear friends and so many noted buildings that I sometimes fear that, by the time I return, the world itself will have disappeared,” he said in the- letter published in the “Sunday Tribune” newspaper. “But I will always think of the restaurant and particularly of you with fond memories,” he added, signing himself Nelson. The African National Congress leader has lived mostly on a bleak diet based on maize since he was convicted of plotting to overthrow white rule and was jailed for life in 1964. In the 19505, Mandela regularly ate at Kapitan’s, one of the first restaurants to serve all races, while working as a lawyer. “I hope I will have the honour of serving him again before I close down,” Mr Kapitan was quoted as saying?