De Klerk to Meet With African Leaders

President Frederik W. de Klerk has accepted an invitation to attend a meeting of African heads of state Saturday, apparently reaping a first reward from some of apartheid’s staunchest foes for freeing Nelson R. Mandela.

“It is confirmed that . . . De Klerk . . . will make a one-day visit to Zaire . . . to attend a meeting of a number of African heads of state,” the president’s spokesman said in a statement Monday.

It will be the first meeting by an incumbent South African head of government with a group of African leaders since the ruling white National Party came to power in 1948.

For his part, Mandela was preparing for a round of international travel. The South African Home Affairs Ministry said it had issued passports to Mandela and his wife, Winnie.

Mandela has said he will travel to ANC headquarters in exile in Lusaka as soon as possible to discuss policy with the long-outlawed movement’s leadership in exile and to work out his exact role in the organization.

Mandela also plans to visit his friend, the ANC’s exiled President Oliver Tambo, recovering in Sweden from a stroke.

An official in the committee coordinating Mandela’s activities after his release said the 71-year-old leader was likely to set out early next week.

Invitations have flooded in for him to travel abroad since De Klerk freed him in a bid to break the country’s political logjam and get negotiations started between Pretoria and the nation’s black majority on steps to end apartheid.

Mandela has said India and Canada will be among the first countries he will visit, because of their strong anti-apartheid stance, but he has not said when he would go.

‘CRY FREEDOM’ IS BACK--The anti-apartheid film will be re-released April 27 in South Africa. F1