WORLD : De Klerk Meets With Mandela After ANC Denounces Arrest
President Frederik W. de Klerk held an urgent meeting with African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela today after the ANC denounced the arrest of a senior member, a source said.
The president’s office announced the meeting a day after the arrest of Mac Maharaj, who is also a Communist Party leader. Police said Maharaj was being held in connection with a plot they said involved Communist members of the ANC.
Neither the president’s office nor the ANC would say if the meeting had taken place in Pretoria, but a reliable source who spoke on condition of anonymity said it had. The source had no details about what was discussed.
De Klerk’s office said the president wanted to meet with Mandela because it appeared the ANC “does not appreciate the seriousness of facts brought to light” by a recent police investigation into the alleged plot to seize power.
Maharaj had been organizing a Communist Party rally planned for Sunday to mark the party’s emergence as a legal political group after years as an underground movement.
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