Restrictions on Mandela Eased by South Africa

The government Thursday eased restrictions on black nationalist leader Nelson R. Mandela, moved the reprieved Sharpeville Six from death row and hanged six other blacks convicted of murder.

The government said that Mandela, the leader of the outlawed African National Congress jailed since 1962, will be transferred from a clinic treating him for tuberculosis since August to “a comfortable and secure living accommodation” where he will be able to see his family “more freely and on a continual basis.”

A statement issued by Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee fell short of announcing Mandela’s outright release from prison but was the strongest indication to date that 26 years of incarceration for the nation’s most popular black opposition figure were over.

Botha Indicated Shift

President Pieter W. Botha has indicated repeatedly in recent months that he does not believe that Mandela, 70, should return to prison once he recovers from tuberculosis.

Mandela’s wife, Winnie, said in a statement issued by family attorney Ismail Ayob that she “attaches no significance to the statement. . . . Mr. Mandela still remains a prisoner of the South African government. . . .”

Mandela was imprisoned in 1962 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for sabotage and plotting the violent overthrow of white-minority rule.

Justice Department spokeswoman Marie Pienaar said the six blacks were hanged at dawn, bringing to 116 the number of court-ordered executions this year.

Botha on Wednesday commuted the death sentences of the so-called Sharpeville Six, five black men and a woman from the black township south of Johannesburg who had spent three years on death row at Pretoria Central Prison.

Botha had been under intense international pressure to spare the six from the gallows for being part of a mob that stoned to death and burned a black councilman in the heat of 1984 anti-government rioting.