After nearly 24 years as a political prisoner Govan Mbeki, one of the ANC's leaders, was released on 5 November from Robben Island where he had been serving a life sentence. (For others released with Mbeki, see PRISONS)
Mbeki's release was welcomed by the ANC and other organisations opposed to apartheid. They attributed the release to pressure both inside South Africa and internationally. At the same time they called for the unconditional release of all political prisoners. The fact that Mbeki remained listed as a communist, and the media were therefore unable to report his words, was widely criticised.
Within days of his release Mbeki made several public appearances. The first, on the day of his release, was at an officially convened press conference, for which restrictions on reporting his statements were temporarily suspended. He affirmed his continuing support for the principles of the ANC for which he had been imprisoned, and said he remained a member of the Communist Party.
Subsequent appearances were greeted with demonstrations of popular support and welcome in spite of the restrictions imposed by the State of Emergency. Mbeki Reception Committees, consisting principally of UDF affiliates, had been formed in various centres. On 8 November Mbeki went to the Witwatersrand, where he was given what the press described as a 'tumultuous' welcome by an estimated 1,000 people at Jan Smuts airport. During a press conference in Johannesburg jubilant supporters outside the venue virtually brought the city centre to a standstill. On his return to Port Elizabeth Mbeki visited all the townships around the city, and was greeted by crowds of residents celebrating his release and welcoming him as a leader.
Three weeks later a public rally which he was due to address in Port Elizabeth was banned by the divisional Commissioner of Police because of the large number of people planning to come (see MEETINGS).
After the banning of the rally Mbeki read the text of his speech to reporters. It paid tribute to the young activists: 'Their spirit beats strongly through every alley and street of my township and through every township in the country ... After 23 years of arid desolation in a prison cell I now express indescribable joy. Through all the physical hardships, the privation of food and comfort, there was a compensating fulfilment of knowing I was pursuing a course expressing loyalty to an ideal of freedom.'
Mbeki had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 in the Rivonia Trial of the ANC's political leadership. As a member of the High Command of Umkhonto we Sizwe he had been found guilty of charges relating to the organisation's sabotage campaign.
Until recently the government had insisted that imprisoned political leaders should renounce their commitment to the armed struggle if they were to be released before the expiry of their sentences. This was changed in August last year when the State President said that in future the release of political prisoners would be reviewed in terms of a number of criteria including 'the interests of the state'. The vagueness of this criterion restored to the regime the room for manoeuvre which its previous policy had removed.
The continuing difference between the treatment of political prisoners and others was underlined by the terms of a general pre-Christ mas amnesty of which the release of Mbeki and others was said to be part. Three months were taken off the sentences of all prisoners, with exceptions which included anyone sentenced on 'security' and unrest-related charges or for refusing to testify - in other words most political prisoners.
Senior government figures have presented the new release policy as an integral part of the political process, explicitly linking it to plans for a National Statutory Council (NSC) as a forum for 'negotiating' a future constitution. The NSC has been rejected by the UDF and other popular forces, as an instrument for the perpetuation of apartheid. Even forces which have normally collaborated with the regime have made participation in the NSC conditional on the release of political prisoners. The Deputy Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning claimed that the release of prisoners would remove a barrier to their participation in the NSC.
