JOHANNESBURG: South African nationalist leader Nelson Mandela has accepted an invitation to visit India and said the national reception committee would decide the dates for the trip.
During a meeting with two Indian emissaries, who arrived in South Africa on Wednesday with a special message from the Prime Minister, V P Singh, Mandela talked fondly about the cordial relations between India and the African National Congress (ANC).
The two Indian ambassadors, Prakash Shah, head of India’s international foreign relations committee in the foreign ministry and Shiv Mukherjee, the head of the Indian observer mission in Namibia, also met several other anti-apartheid leaders.
Asked when India would establish a diplomatic office in South Africa, Mukherjee said such an office would only be opened when a non-racial and democratic government was set up in South Africa.
Until then Indian sanctions and pressures against Pretoria regime will continue, he said, adding “we fully support the strategies of the ANC”.
Mukherjee refused to comment on the racial attacks on Indians in Durban, saying “‘it is a matter for New Delhi’.
Shah and Mukherjee also met Alan Boesak, patron of the United Democratic Front, anti-Apartheid lawyer, Ismail Mahomed and several Indian anti-Apartheid leaders.
He said they did not meet any Official of the Pretoria government or those Indians who formed part of the Apartheid system.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 23, 1990
