Mandela Makes Pleas to U.N., U.S. Executives

In a historic day for South Africa’s black liberation struggle, Nelson Mandela on Friday took his case to United Nations diplomats and to captains of American industry, drawing vigorous standing ovations as he pleaded for emotional and financial support.

The political prisoner turned world statesman, addressing the most influential audiences since his arrival in the United States three days ago, urged the United Nations to resist any temptation to ease Pretoria’s isolation. And, in an effort to reassure business leaders, he said that his African National Congress was not committed to wholesale nationalization of South Africa’s economy.

Then, changing pace, he and wife, Winnie, rubbed elbows with stars at a glitzy fund-raising dinner given by actor Robert De Niro and movie director Spike Lee at a downtown nightspot. The guest list included Eddie Murphy, Madonna, Al Pacino and Paul Newman.

Mandela’s last full day in New York also included two interviews for public TV, two press conferences and a stroll through an East River park. Meanwhile, Phil Donahue chatted with Winnie Mandela on his nationally syndicated talk show.

At the United Nations, dignitaries and spectators leaped to their feet as Mandela strode into the General Assembly hall for a speech to a packed meeting of the organization’s anti-apartheid committee.

After an hour and a half of five-minute speeches singing his praises, Mandela rose to the podium and told delegates that it would “forever remain an indelible blight on human history that the apartheid crime ever occurred. Future generations will surely ask: What error was made that this system established itself . . . ?”

“It will forever remain a . . . challenge to all men and women of conscience that it took as long as it has before all of us stood up to say enough is enough,” said Mandela, 71, reading his speech in a clear, strong voice.

He warned that, although South African President Frederik W. de Klerk and his colleagues are “men of integrity,” there were other whites in South Africa, including many in the police and army, “who are still committed to the maintenance of the evil system of apartheid” by “physical liquidation of the ANC, its leadership and membership.”

“We cannot afford to underestimate the threat that these defenders of a brutal and continuing reality pose to the whole process of working toward a just political settlement,” Mandela added.

Mandela’s U.N. appearance came amid a security network that had boats, helicopters and dozens of police officers on motorcycles and horseback encircling the U.N. building.

A liberal South African weekly newspaper reported Friday that police had detained 11 right-wing activists following a report of a plot to assassinate De Klerk and Mandela. Police confirmed the arrests but said all had been released. The paper said the plotters had planned to assassinate Mandela when he returned from his overseas journey on his 72nd birthday, July 18.

When asked at two news conferences if he feared for his life, Mandela said at one point: “I am too busy doing what I think is constructive work to worry about threats to my life.”

He said the ANC’s mission does not depend on him alone and would continue to flourish even “at my death.”

The U.N. General Assembly has supported the ANC’s fight for the black franchise in South Africa. It ousted South Africa’s white government, a founding member of the United Nations, from the General Assembly in 1974.

Among the guests Mandela had invited to join him at the United Nations were former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and promoter Don King. Mandela, who is 6 feet, 4 inches tall, towered over Tyson, who is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, when the two warmly shook hands and exchanged greetings.

“I feel really that he’s truly a world champion,” Tyson said of Mandela, an amateur boxer in his younger days. “Twenty-seven years in jail and to come out so coherent is unbelievable.”

At the U.N. news conference, Mandela expressed no bitterness toward the government or white South Africans for the life sentence he received for plotting sabotage against the government and for the quarter of a century he spent in jail.

When asked his reaction to reported suggestions that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency may have played a role in his arrest when he was posing as a chauffeur in 1962, Mandela replied simply: “Let bygones be bygones.”

Earlier, Mandela charmed some of America’s most influential business leaders during a breakfast meeting in a ballroom on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center, overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

Mandela told the gathering of 280 corporate heads and Fortune 500 executives that their financial and material support was desperately needed to continue the fight against apartheid, the South African legal system that creates separate and unequal living conditions for the black majority and white minority.

More important, Mandela said, a “post-apartheid” South Africa will need major investment to train black managers, bring in technology and rebuild a nation ruled by a one-person, one-vote system.

To that end, he sought to reassure his elite audience that a government led by the ANC is not committed to socialism--although he remained vague about exactly what course an economy in a future South Africa would follow. The nation’s wealth must be redistributed more equitably, he said, but the ANC would consider all options--including a mixed economy--to bring that about.

“We are sensitive to the fact that, as investors in a post-apartheid South Africa, you will need to be confident about the security of your investments, an adequate and equitable return on your capital and a general climate of peace and stability,” Mandela said.

The press was barred from the meeting, but a copy of Mandela’s comments was made available, and participants emerging from the session described the greeting Mandela received: Sophisticated businessmen in suits and ties crowded around his table like eager kids to shake his hand, and they gave him a standing ovation after his remarks.

“There was a crackling excitement in the audience,” said Richard C. Leone, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “You don’t usually see that in an audience of this type. It was quite an exciting thing.”

Several of the executives came away with new sympathy for Mandela’s cause.

“I think Mr. Mandela made a great impression on the business community and softened the business community’s attitudes toward sanctions and toward South Africa,” said hotel magnate Preston Robert Tisch, chairman of the New York City Partnership, a group of business and civic leaders.

In response to questions, Mandela said he believed that the American firms that were among the first to pull out of South Africa to protest apartheid should be given favorable treatment if they choose to return to South Africa when apartheid has been abolished. He also encouraged big business to use its influence in maintaining sanctions against Pretoria.

Rockefeller Foundation President Peter C. Goldmark suggested establishing a redevelopment bank funded by private enterprise to help channel money into the rebuilding of South Africa. Mandela termed the proposal an “exciting” idea.

Skepticism among the businessmen was not completely erased.

His continuing proposal to nationalize some sectors of industry seemed to disturb Rockwell International Vice President Derek Wimmer.

“He said the right kinds of things,” Wimmer said. But he added: “I think we will monitor the situation very closely and keep our eyes open. I don’t think I heard anything today that suggests we would make any major moves in the short haul.”

Meanwhile, Mandela continued to be dogged by his refusal to back away from support for the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Yasser Arafat and other world leaders whom the U.S. government considers enemies.

At the United Nations, Mandela reiterated his solidarity with all organizations fighting for liberation, provoking criticism from the White House and some Jewish leaders.

However, many Jewish organizations, although privately concerned about Mandela’s attitude about Arafat, prefered to minimize the dispute in light of the black leader’s stature.

“Jewish leaders have done a major disservice to the Jewish people by inserting the issue of support for Israel into the middle of Nelson Mandela’s visit to the U.S.,” said a statement issued Friday by Tikkun, a leading Jewish publication based in Oakland.

Mandela, in an interview with PBS’s Charlayne Hunter-Gault, said he was “more astonished than surprised” by the furor his remarks have unleashed in the United States.

He pointed out that, when the ANC was forced into exile three decades ago, its pleas for help were ignored by the United States. Other countries, such as Cuba, were quick to offer support, he said.

“Why now should we listen to the Western world when they say we shouldn’t listen to Cuba?” he said. “It’s unreasonable.”

Staff writers John J. Goldman, Don Shannon and Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.

HIGHLIGHTS OF TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Eastern Daylight Time 7:45 a.m.: Departs New York for Boston 8:30 a.m.: Arrives in Logan Airport 10:30 a.m.: Arrives Madison Park High School in Roxbury. 11:30 a.m.: Luncheon at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. 3:30 p.m.: Winnie Mandela departs library for appearance at St. Paul’s Cathedral. 4:00 p.m. Nelson Mandela arrives at Esplanade for rally Evening: Reception at Copley Piaza. Stays overnight at Copley Plaza.