Mandela Tired, May Cut Back Grueling 14-Nation Tour

Black South African leader Nelson Mandela, still in the first week of a grueling 14-nation tour, cut back on appointments Friday because of general weariness but insisted that he feels well.

Mandela, 71, said more changes are being considered in the remainder of his six-week trip, which includes an eight-city tour of the United States and a meeting with President Bush in Washington. He is scheduled to be in Los Angeles on June 29 and 30, and the Bay Area on June 30.

“A cutback is quite possible,” he told reporters after arriving 45 minutes late at the headquarters of the World Council of Churches and cutting his visit there from two hours to one.

Mandela looked somewhat tired but walked straight and talked firmly.

“I don’t know how I look, but I feel good,” Mandela said. “We have a doctor on our team and he hasn’t given me any instructions.”

All the same, Mandela’s doctor cited “medical reasons but mainly tiredness” in telephoning the International Committee of the Red Cross to postpone a 30-minute visit. Mandela wanted to thank the humanitarian agency for its visits over the years to political prisoners in South Africa.

Mandela was released in February after 27 years in prison and last week underwent minor surgery for a non-malignant cyst on the bladder.

“He is tired and a cutback in the schedule is likely for the whole trip,” said Jay Naidoo, leader of the black Congress of South African Trade Unions and a Mandela delegation member.

“His own people organized a grueling nonstop schedule and it has to be cut back,” a South African diplomat said privately. “We don’t want him to die, for heaven’s sake.”

Mandela’s main objectives on the trip are to push for continued sanctions against Pretoria until there is black majority rule, to outline his ideas on a non-racist democracy and to thank those who have helped combat apartheid.