Mandela Marks Birthday, 70th, in S. African Prison

Black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela marked his 70th birthday today in a South African prison cell amid scattered protests from his supporters in the country and silence from the state-run media.

His wife, Winnie, herself a symbol of anti-apartheid protest, held a press conference in Johannesburg at which scores of messages were read out from foreign leaders, church, student and labor groups calling for the release of her husband.

With her daughter, Zindzi, and other family members, she stood in front of a 20-foot-high poster of Mandela, the world’s most famous prisoner, who is spending his 26th year in jail for plotting to overthrow white rule.

“We are humbled by the recognition by the international community of this day,” Winnie Mandela said.

Mandela and his wife rejected a government offer of a special six-hour family visit to Cape Town’s Pollsmoor prison where he is held, saying they did not want privileges denied to other jailed opponents of apartheid.

‘Other Motives Seen’

Winnie Mandela said today: “The concept of spending a 70th birthday behind bars is abhorrent. But the government had other motives for allowing us the six hours in Pollsmoor. The government could have used the visit against us.”

Pretoria has not responded to a flood of international pleas to release Mandela, who is still revered by radical blacks as a symbol of resistance to white rule and as a leader of the outlawed African National Congress.

Zindzi read a message from the ANC’s acting president, Oliver Tambo, who said Mandela’s imprisonment is the imprisonment of all South Africa.

“Let the apartheid regime know the high esteem in which he is held,” the message said.

Police swooped down on a high school in Cape Town’s colored (mixed-race) township of Bonteheuwel today and ordered students to go home, eyewitnesses said.

Silent Protest

Students had been planning a rally to honor Mandela and to rename the school after an ANC guerrilla killed in a skirmish with police last year.

Only a few signs of dissent escaped police vigilance. White women members of the Black Sash civil rights movement stood in silent protest at various points in Cape Town holding placards reading “Free Nelson Mandela.”

A huge banner with a picture of Mandela and the slogan “Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela. Freedom at 70” was slung over a bridge on one of the main roads into Cape Town, only a few miles from Pollsmoor prison where Mandela is jailed.

State-run Radio South Africa did not mention Mandela’s birthday or the appeals for his release in its morning news bulletins. The government argues that Mandela was justly jailed for planning violence and denies that he is a political prisoner.

Police have used their wide powers under a 25-month-old state of emergency to ban music festivals, sports days and parties that were to be held around South Africa to honor the man many blacks regard as their leader.