Mandela Summoned Over Alleged Plot

President Frederik W. de Klerk summoned Nelson Mandela to an emergency meeting Thursday night to discuss police allegations that African National Congress operatives, led by Communists in the ANC hierarchy, are plotting an armed insurrection if peace talks break down.

About 40 ANC members have been detained in recent weeks, and newspapers that support the government, quoting unnamed intelligence sources, reported Thursday that police have seized a 4,000-page plan from an ANC computer outlining the plot and its principal operatives.

The controversy has threatened to undermine the fledgling peace process, which had been expected to lead to an ANC cease-fire in the next round of ANC-government talks, scheduled for Aug. 6. No details of the De Klerk-Mandela meeting were released, but De-Klerk’s office said the two leaders agreed to meet again next week.

The matter was brought to a head Thursday with the detention of Mac Maharaj, a member of the ANC’s executive committee and a leading figure in the South African Communist Party. Maharaj entered the country last month under the immunity De Klerk granted in May to about 50 ANC members, allowing them to participate in the peace talks without fear of prosecution for past crimes.

Maharaj and most of the others arrested are being held under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act, which allows police to detain activists in solitary confinement indefinitely, without legal counsel, for interrogation.

Mandela was “hopping mad” over the detention of Maharaj, who was “exceptionally close” to the ANC deputy president, according to Ronnie Kasrils, another ANC executive committee member. Kasrils, former intelligence chief of the ANC’s military wing, said he and Maharaj had been establishing an underground ANC network as “an insurance policy” against the possible failure of talks.

Kasrils, also believed to be a leading figure in the Communist Party, went underground himself Thursday, saying the authorities had issued a warrant for his arrest.

In asking for the “urgent” meeting with Mandela, De Klerk said it appears that “the ANC does not appreciate the seriousness of the facts which were brought to light by the South African police investigations of the past few days.”

Police maintain that the ANC’s military wing, which is directed primarily by Communist Party members, has been taking advantage of the relaxed political climate to infiltrate the country and advance a plan to overthrow the government if the peace talks fail. More arrests are likely, police say.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mandela had flatly denied any secret plot to overthrow the government, saying the ANC’s executive committee was unanimous in its commitment to pursue peaceful solutions in South Africa, as had been agreed during talks with the government in May.

But he acknowledged that some ANC operatives were “still operating under old instructions” and had not yet been informed of the ANC’s decision to seek peaceful solutions to the country’s problems.

The Communist Party, the ANC’s longtime ally, plans a mass rally Sunday to re-establish itself as an above-ground organization; De Klerk lifted a 40-year-old ban on the party in February.

Mandela, who is not a Communist, has criticized the spate of arrests, saying they are an attempt to drive a wedge between the two allies. Communist Party spokesman Jeremy Cronin said that the party fully supports the ANC’s peace efforts, and he contended that the arrests were an attempt to undermine the Sunday rally. Maharaj had been the chief organizer of that rally.