Struggle Must Continue, Mandela Says : Apartheid: A sellout crowd of 72,000 in London gathers to celebrate his freedom from prison.

African National Congress leader Nelson R. Mandela on Monday declared to a potential worldwide television audience of 1 billion that apartheid in South Africa will be ended only by “struggle,” including international sanctions.

Speaking from the stage of a sellout concert before 72,000 people at London’s Wembley Stadium to celebrate his freedom, he told television viewers in 60 countries: “Reject any suggestion that the campaign to isolate the apartheid system should be wound down.”

But expressing surprising optimism at the pace of reforms, he predicted: “It will not be long now before we see an end to the apartheid system. The dreams of millions of people to see our country free and at peace will be realized sooner rather than later.”

Calling for the transformation of South Africa from being “the skunk of the Earth” to an “exemplary oasis” of democracy, good race relations and freedom from poverty and human degradation, he said: “It will be a proud day for humanity when we are able to say that the apartheid crime against humanity is no more.”

He reminded his audience that there are still political prisoners in South African custody, saying: “We should, therefore, treat this day of celebration as one of re-dedication to the continuation and intensification of the struggle for the emancipation of all the remaining political prisoners.”

The program was not televised in the United States, where it was deemed too political, or in South Africa.

In a thinly veiled attack on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who eased sanctions on South Africa earlier this year in response to political reforms there, Mandela said:

“It is only those who support apartheid who can argue that the Pretoria government should be rewarded for the small steps it has taken, such as our release, and the unbanning of the ANC and the other organizations.”

Thatcher lifted a ban on new British investments, without waiting for the approval of her partners in the 12-member European Community.

Before arriving here, Mandela called the British policy “absolutely disastrous” and spurned an open invitation to meet the prime minister during his two days in London.

The concert was staged to celebrate Mandela’s release in February from 27 years in prison.

Among the entertainers were Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, Simple Minds, Soul II Soul, the Neville Brothers, Peter Gabriel, Anita Baker, Tracy Chapman, Jackson Browne, Johnny Clegg and actor Denzel Washington.

In his speech, Mandela said: “The transformation of our country into a non-racial democracy . . . will only become reality as a result of struggle, including the struggle represented by the international sanctions campaign. . . . The apartheid crime against humanity remains in place. It continues to kill and maim. It continues to oppress and exploit. . . .

“All of us must, therefore, refuse to be demobilized, even if those who seek to demobilize us plead that they are doing so out of a new-found concern for the oppressed and out of the goodness of their hearts.”