Word: mandelas
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...When Mandela speaks with visitors, Swart sits in the next room, positioned so that he sees Mandela but the guests cannot see Swart. Guests must leave before 4 p.m., when Swart goes off duty. From then until 7 the next morning, South Africa's most famous prisoner is alone...
From his prison quarters in South Africa's wine-producing region near Paarl, Nelson Mandela has been conducting a quiet diplomatic campaign. Last July he accepted an invitation from his adversary, former President P.W. Botha, for a historic face-to-face meeting. Mandela has since received a series of visitors at the Victor Verster Prison Farm, where he is serving his 26th year of a life sentence for plotting to overthrow white rule. Most of his powwows have been with leaders of rival antigovernment groups. But last week Mandela, 71, a leader of the banned African National Congress (A.N.C.), traveled...
...Mandela's prison dialogue with the government on one side and antiapartheid forces on the other is making him ever more indispensable in efforts to bridge the gap between the country's 5 million whites and 26 million blacks. "He is the man who can create a basis upon which the authorities and the liberation movement can come to terms," says Yusuf Cachalia, a veteran antiapartheid activist...
Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee said the two men explored "ways and means to address the current obstacles in the way of meaningful dialogue." The government did not say when it might release Mandela, muting hopes of a Christmas homecoming, but Coetsee said De Klerk wants to resume talks with Mandela next year...
...Mandela's A.N.C. comrades were pleased by the exchange. Many were similarly disgruntled over the July meeting with Botha, an encounter of less import, considering that Botha was a lame duck. Some A.N.C. members seem to object to Mandela's taking a supreme role in the organization, officially headed by the ailing Oliver Tambo, 72. Still, none suggested that Mandela had compromised the A.N.C. goal of one-man, one-vote black majority rule, although younger militants are afraid that he has grown too soft and too accommodating. The group officially opposes talks with the government until several preconditions...