Mandela Will Visit Southland : Anti-Apartheid: Leader of African National Congress is set to arrive in L.A. in June. A local ANC official is unhappy about planning for trip.

Nelson Mandela, the long-imprisoned leader of the African National Congress, plans to visit Los Angeles next month during a 10-day trip to the United States, ANC officials announced Tuesday.

Los Angeles is tentatively scheduled to be the final stop on Mandela’s U.S. visit, which is set to begin June 20 with a ticker-tape parade through downtown Manhattan and a possible speech to the United Nations. Mandela is expected to meet with President Bush at the White House on June 25 and is slated to be in Los Angeles on June 29-30.

Planning for Mandela’s Los Angeles trip was proceeding along at least two paths, and one member of the local ANC chapter expressed concern about the presence of more than one local organizer.

Assemblywoman Maxine Waters said she heads the local committee that is responsible for coordinating Mandela’s stay in Los Angeles. Waters is part of the local branch of the national Mandela Visit Freedom Committee, which she said is responsible for coordinating Mandela’s visit to seven U.S. cities.

At the same time, Tiyo Soga III, vice chairman of the Southern California chapter of the ANC, said his organization is making plans for Mandela’s visit and is the sole organization empowered to do so.

Soga expressed concern that others were ignoring the wishes of the leadership of the ANC which, he said, instructed the local chapter “to take full charge of all the organizational work pertaining to the visit.”

Meanwhile, Waters said her planning efforts are continuing.

Details of Mandela’s visit have yet to be ironed out, but Waters said that making sure he can be seen by large numbers of people would be a priority.

Councilman Robert Farrell, echoing sentiments expressed by others, said he hopes Mandela’s visit would strengthen support for continuing sanctions against South Africa.

As previously reported, South African President F.W. de Klerk also will visit Bush in June, becoming the first South African chief of state in more than 30 years to visit the White House. De Klerk’s visit is tentatively set for June 18, although White House officials said that they could not yet officially confirm the date.

ANC representatives in Washington denounced Bush’s decision to see de Klerk before Mandela, calling it a “slap in the face.”

“It is not too late for the Administration to take corrective measures,” Mendi Msimang, the ANC representative to Britain, said at a Washington press conference announcing the Mandela visit.

Administration officials, however, said that the dates of the two visits had been left up to the South Africans and the order of the two meetings was a result of the crowded schedules of Mandela and de Klerk. Bush invited both men to the White House after de Klerk ordered Mandela’s release from prison earlier this year.

De Klerk’s visit may be met by anti-apartheid demonstrations but is otherwise likely to be a relatively low-key affair. By contrast, Mandela’s tour of the United States, which is expected to include Boston, Detroit, Atlanta and Miami in addition to Washington, Los Angeles and New York, is expected to be a massively attended and heavily publicized trip.

Mandela is expected to visit a number of black colleges and meet with labor and civil rights groups that have provided support to the ANC during the many years of his imprisonment for anti-apartheid activities.

Lauter reported from Washington. Stewart reported from Los Angeles.