Rift Over Visit by Mandela Quelled : Tour: Dissent over arrangements for the anti-apartheid leader has isolated a small faction among members of the African National Congress in the Southland.

Despite cries of dissent from within Southern California’s South African community, Los Angeles-based followers of Nelson Mandela and local politicians are moving ahead in preparation for the anti-apartheid leader’s visit next month.

Mandela’s organization, the African National Congress, sent its highest-ranking official in the United States to Los Angeles over the weekend in an apparent attempt to settle differences that had surfaced over the way the upcoming tour was being handled.

The result is that most local ANC members have embraced an organizing committee headed by Democratic Assemblywoman Maxine Waters, while a smaller faction of dissidents is finding itself increasing isolated.

“We are very confident that we will work well together with Maxine Waters,” said Mfundi Vundla, a representative of the local ANC chapter. “There is a meaningful role we plan to play along with the friendly American organizations.”

The comments came in the wake of a protest by a handful of ANC members who had objected to the lead role that Waters and other prominent black Americans were taking in Mandela’s reception.

Tiyo Soga, who until the controversy erupted was vice chairman of the local ANC chapter, had insisted that South African ANC members be put in charge of Mandela’s schedule. He charged that he and his followers were being pushed aside as American politicians seized the spotlight.

But when Lindewe Mabuza, the chief ANC representative to the United States, arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, she reaffirmed that the Waters committee was in charge and that ANC members should work with it.

Mabuza met first with Waters, then in a private Claremont residence with a majority faction of the ANC chapter, which included Vundla and the chapter’s chairman, Vusi Shangasi. According to sources at the meeting, the decision was made to suspend Soga, strip him of his vice chairmanship and disavow his statements.

“I am regarded as the troublemaker,” Soga said later.

The episode has illustrated, in part, an ongoing struggle over access to the champion of the anti-apartheid movement, who was released from a South African prison in February after 27 years of confinement. President Bush invited Mandela to the White House, giving rise to the tour.

Los Angeles is the final stopover in a 10-day, seven-city U.S. tour scheduled to begin June 20 in New York. Other cities on the route are Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Miami and Detroit.

In Southern California, where an estimated 100 South African writers, students and university professors live, tentative elements of Mandela’s schedule are beginning to fall in place.

According to sources involved in the preparations, a reception committee will greet the 71-year-old leader at Los Angeles International Airport on the morning of June 29. A motorcade will take him to a fund-raising luncheon, and a huge rally in the Coliseum is planned for that evening. Mandela leaves the next morning, scarcely 24 hours after setting foot in Los Angeles.

Security will be provided by the U.S. State Department, with the Los Angeles Police Department providing backup. “He’s being treated almost as a head of state,” police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said.

Nationwide, a frantic competition for time with Mandela is well under way. Some groups hope that he will serve as symbolic inspiration to blacks in racially torn neighborhoods. Others hope that he will have an impact on U.S. foreign policy, an influence toward maintaining sanctions against the white South African regime.

“Nelson Mandela has caused pandemonium,” laughed Willis Edwards, former president of the Beverly Hills chapter of the NAACP, who is involved in organizing Mandela’s local schedule. “Everyone wants a piece of him . . . everyone wants to touch the hem of his garment.”

Details of the Los Angeles segment are being forged in weekly meetings sponsored by Waters.

The most recent session was held Monday night in a Lafayette Park hotel. More than 100 representatives of diverse community organizations--from the Rainbow Coalition to the NAACP to the Hollywood Women’s Political Caucus--were also in attendance.

Even Ted Hayes, self-described homeless activist, was there, asking that the poor and homeless get a chance to see Mandela.

Waters refused to allow a reporter inside the meeting, but several participants described what happened. The ANC rift surfaced again, but was quickly put aside, according to participants.

Soga and his supporters attended and outlined a series of demands, including: all money raised in connection with Mandela’s visit should be channeled to South Africa and the ANC should be granted a one-hour audience with Mandela.

Another ANC member, representing the larger faction, told the group that Soga did not speak for the organization and that internal ANC problems were a separate issue that had been resolved by Mabuza’s visit, according to participants.

“Maxine ran it beautifully,” one participant said. “She let the dissidents--even after the ANC said all (differences) had been resolved--have their moment, say their piece, then made it clear we were there for the purpose of scheduling” Mandela’s visit.

But another participant, who supports the dissidents, said Waters seemed angered by Soga’s comments. “I think her patience ran out,” that participant said.

Waters, who is running for the 29th congressional seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Augustus (Gus) Hawkins, has sought to downplay any problems.

“I don’t think there are any major problems with the bringing of Nelson Mandela here,” she said in a telephone interview.

“I am looking forward to his visit. I hope no one takes this as an opportunity to blow out of proportion some perceived controversy. I am working with the local ANC and the national (ANC), and everybody (working with us) is on line.”

TUTU ENDS TOUR

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa wraps up 12-day visit to Southern California. B3