Nelson Mandela, the ANC leader who has been in prison for 22 years, has again rejected a conditional prison release offer. The latest offer was announced in parliament by President P.W. Botha on 31 January. The President said that Mandela could go free if he 'unconditionally rejected violence as a political weapon'. A requirement made in earlier release offers, namely that he live in the Transkei bantustan if released - was omitted.
Mandela's reply to the offer was read out by his daughter at a mass rally organised by the UDF in Soweto on 10 February. Speaking on behalf of all the long-term prisoners in prison with him at Pollsmoor Prison near Cape Town, Mandela recalled that he and his colleagues in the ANC had sought a non-violent solution in the past but pleas for a negotiated resolution of the country's problems had been spurned by successive prime ministers. Only when all other forms of resistance were no longer open did the ANC turn to armed struggle.
Mandela challenged President Botha to renounce violence first, state that he will dismantle apartheid, unban the ANC, free everyone imprisoned for opposition to apartheid and guarantee free political activity to allow the people to decide who would govern them. Commenting on the nature of the 'freedom' being offered, he noted that the ANC would still be banned, that he would still be subject to the pass laws, that his citizenship would still be endangered and that his wife would still be banished.
One month before the offer made by President Botha, Mandela had rejected a fifth offer of release to the Transkei bantustan. A previous offer in March 1984 was emphatically rejected by Mandela who stated that he rejected bantustans and all who collaborated with them. He also stated that if he were banished to the Transkei he would return to his home in Johannesburg immediately.
RELEASES
The following prisoners were released in the second half of 1984 but for reasons of space their releases have not previously been reported in FOCUS.
- Phillip DLAMINI (32), the general-secretary of the South African Black Municipal and Allied Workers Union was released from 18 months imprisonment on 12 July 1984. He was jailed for refusing to give evidence for the state in the trial of Lillian Keagile. He spent more than six months in prison before he was called to give evidence. He was called three times, but each time refused to testify.
- Martin Tebogo 'Spencer' MOHAN, Bontshie LEBELOANE (24), Johannes 'Shuffle' MARUOMO (24) and Terence 'Tallman' PHIRI (23) were released from Diepkoof Prison on 25 September after serving five year sentences on Robben Island. Three of the four were leaders of the Soweto Student League and were convicted of sabotage in 1979.
