S. Africa Frees Sisulu, 5 Other Black Activists

JOHANNESBURG, OCT. 15 (SUNDAY) -- South African nationalist leader Walter Sisulu and five other black anti-apartheid activists were freed today after each spent more than 25 years in prison for plotting to overthrow white-minority rule.

Sisulu, 77, arrived at dawn at his home in Johannesburg's black township of Soweto to an ecstatic welcome. As he stepped from a prison van he was immediately surrounded by a cheering crowd of about 50 supporters, witnesses reported. Black youths waved a large black, green and gold flag of the banned African National Congress and sang freedom songs as supporters hustled Sisulu inside the one-story house.

Reached by telephone minutes after Sisulu's arrival, his 70-year-old wife Albertina, said: "Oh, we are so very happy."

Witnesses at Soweto's Diepkloof prison, where Sisulu and the others were moved last week, reported they saw Sisulu's five fellow activists released from the building. There was no immediate word on two other long-term political prisoners whose freedom also has been ordered.

The release of the nationalists, all aged 60 to 80, is the result of months of delicate negotiations between the South African government and Nelson Mandela, the symbolic ANC leader who will remain in jail for a while longer, sources close to the banned organization said here Saturday.

The sources, who asked not to be identified, said Mandela held a series of negotiations with four government representatives, led by Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee. The talks took place in the prison house where Mandela is being held on the grounds of the Victor Verster prison, outside the western Cape Province town of Paarl.

The negotiations, which took place over a period of months, culminated in a tacit agreement on the ground rules for Sisulu's release and probably will be followed by Mandela's own release early next year, the sources said.

In announcing Tuesday that he had ordered the unconditional release of Sisulu and the other prisoners, President Frederik W. de Klerk said authorities had consulted Mandela but that the ANC leader "confirmed yet again that his release is not now on the agenda."

Beyond acknowledging that meetings were held with Mandela, there has been no suggestion from the government that any detailed negotiating was conducted with him. The government would not likely want to publicize that it has come to the cell of the prisoner it has hated and feared for years to negotiate his own release.

Meetings between the authorities and Mandela have regularly been recorded by the South African media. Coetsee has said he has seen Mandela a number of times, and de Klerk's predecessor, former president Pieter W. Botha, held what was termed a 45-minute "courtesy visit" with Mandela in July, sparking speculation that Mandela's release was imminent.

The sources also indicated that in reaching the agreement on releasing the prisoners, both Mandela and the government representatives advanced their own separate strategies in the complex interplay of game plans that is developing here as both white and black nationalists try to turn from years of violent confrontation to a political contest for control of the racially divided country.

What the agreement amounts to, according to this view, is a delicate balance between the needs and fears of a government under heavy international pressure to demonstrate a willingness to end its apartheid system of white-minority control, and the enormous opportunities that the release of the prisoners opens up for the ANC in its struggle for black-majority rule.

To ease the pressure on it, the Pretoria government has been faced with a convergence of demands for the release of Mandela and other political prisoners, a lifting of the ban on the ANC and other political organizations, the return of exiles, an end to the three-year state of emergency and the repeal of repressive laws.

It has been evident to observers here that the government has long wanted to release Mandela, who has been in prison for more than 25 years, but has been worried about its ability to manage the consequences.

Government officials have been haunted by the mass response inside Iran to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's return to Tehran on Feb. 1, 1979, and the collapse of the Shah's government 10 days later. They fear that Mandela's release might provoke a similar unmanageable response in South Africa's black townships.

With the once-robust South African economy now feeling the effects of international sanctions, and the threat that these might be intensified (for example, at next week's British Commonwealth summit meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), the need to make a move on the package of demands acquired a new urgency. It was this, the sources said they believe, that prompted the government to begin discussions with Mandela.

Meanwhile, as Mandela saw it, the prospect of having the imprisoned ANC leaders released opened tremendous new possibilities for the black "liberation struggle," the sources said. He was, therefore, prepared to negotiate a deal that would meet the government's fears of widespread disorder.

According to the sources, Mandela's strategy is based on the belief that the unconditional release of the imprisoned ANC leaders will amount to the de facto unbanning of the ANC. The released leaders will be able to tour the country, meet people and address rallies -- all in the name of what is still formally an outlawed organization.

The sources pointed out that the government is unlikely to throw them back in jail for doing this, since that would defeat the purpose of their release and would cause such a negative reaction that it would have been better to keep them in prison.

The sources said Mandela believes that Pretoria will eventually feel compelled to legitimize what has happened in practice and lift the ban on the ANC.

The tacit agreement that was reached between Mandela and the ministers amounts to a compromise between these two positions, the sources said.

According to them, the deal called for Sisulu and the other seven prisoners to be released, with Mandela remaining in prison a few months longer as a kind of hostage to ensure their "responsible" behavior. Mandela disclosed the deal to leaders of the ant-apartheid Mass Democratic Movement at a meeting in his prison house Tuesday night as de Klerk announced the impending releases.

If the prisoners' return to society and political activity goes off without trouble, the dramatic impact of Mandela's subsequent release would be reduced and the government would be prepared to risk letting him go.

It would appear from this that the onus has been subtly placed on the Sisulu and his seven colleagues as well as on the leaders of the Mass Democratic Movement to quell the mass response to their release. The sources said Mandela has judged this a small price to pay for the political benefits to be gained.

They said Mandela also believes that there are advantages to his remaining in prison for now, where he can continue negotiating with the ministers to ensure that by the time he is released, the ANC will be legalized and the government will be ready to negotiate with it.

If he were to be released now, the sources pointed out, his contact with the government would end because the de Klerk administration is not yet prepared to talk openly with the ANC.

But, as the sources acknowledged, the strategy holds risks for the black movements. While they are now under an obligation to control public reaction, Sisulu and the other freed prisoners will have to respond to the excitement their release has generated in the black community. They dare not appear to be soft-pedaling for the government's sake.

Released with Sisulu today were Ahmed Kathrada, 60, Elias Motsoaledi, 65, Wilton Mkwayi, 67, Jafta Masemula, 60, and Andrew Mlangeni, 63. Raymond Mhlaba, 69, has been moved to a prison near his home outside Port Elizabeth and Oscar Mpetha, 80, is under treatment in a Cape Town hospital.