The sentence in the courtroom that day in June 1964 was life in prison. The verdict of history will hardly judge Nelson Mandela a common criminal. Despite the government’s determination to lock him away for good and crush his liberation movement, the unrelenting crusade to abolish apartheid that he waged from a prison cell over the decades made him the supreme symbol of the black struggle in South Africa. At 4:15 p.m. local time on Sunday, Feb. 11, Nelson Mandela walked out of the Victor Verster Prison Farm near Cape Town — free at last. It was, said an announcer for the official South African Broadcasting Corp., “the moment that a majority of South Africans, and the world, have been waiting for.” A bulky 200-pounder when the prison doors closed behind him, Mandela is now a slim, white-haired statesman of 71. He has referred to his quarter-century behind bars as “long, lonely, wasted years.” The tinge of bitterness is understandable, but the years were not entirely wasted. He has been planning a long time for this day, and blacks — and many whites — eagerly await his guiding hand to lead the nation toward a resolution of their racial antagonism. In his home township of Soweto, children danced around Mandela’s house singing “Mandela is coming!” Declared a jubilant Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “Here he is, this man who has such a crucial role to play in the making of this new South Africa.” Mandela has already committed himself to serve as the “facilitator” for negotiations between the black majority and the white minority government to draw up a new constitution granting power to all races. In fact, there will have to be several stages before that. While State President F.W. de Klerk’s legalization of the African National Congress earlier this month was accompanied by relaxation measures that met most of the A.N.C.’s preconditions, the 3 1/2-year-old state of emergency remains in place and up to 300 activists are still in jail. That situation, says Mandela, will have to change if a “climate for negotiations” is to be established. + How the A.N.C. will re-enter the country’s political life and who will take part in talks must still be worked out. Mandela is almost universally viewed as a leader of the A.N.C., but he now holds no official post in the Congress and is technically responsible to its leaders in Lusaka. He will have to work out with them just what formal role he will play. De Klerk first announced that Mandela would be released “without delay” on Feb. 2. Then came a nerve-racking interval, recalling the years of slice-at-a- time tactics the government has used to neutralize black reaction. Mandela was kept waiting while the government whittled away at its proviso that he must renounce violence. Last Saturday De Klerk simply declared, “I came to the conclusion that he is committed to a peaceful solution and a peaceful process.” Pretoria had long worried that when Mandela appeared on the streets of Soweto once again, black townships all over the country would explode into uncontrollable demonstrations. De Klerk still worries about that. After announcing Mandela’s release, he called for calm and stability as the “conditions that would enable me to lift the state of emergency.” He made it clear that the government will monitor Mandela’s homecoming to test law- and-order in the black townships.
