Mandela Leads Nearly 100,000 in March on Citadel of White Power in S. Africa : Politics: Similar demonstrations occur in other cities. But, in speech, ANC leader sounds conciliatory note.

Nelson Mandela led tens of thousands of voteless blacks on a spirited protest march Wednesday through the streets of South Africa’s capital to the hilltop citadel of white power they long to control.

The crowd of nearly 100,000, one of the largest marches in the nation’s history, raised the black, green and gold flag of the African National Congress on a grassy slope below the beige stone edifice of the Union Buildings, seat of President Frederik W. de Klerk’s government.

Then the 74-year-old ANC president, delivering a speech that rang through the halls of government, celebrated the two-day strike of nearly 4 million black workers that ended Tuesday as “unquestionably one of the greatest moments in our history.”

With the strike over, though, Mandela seemed to adopt a conciliatory tone for the first time since June 23, when the ANC pulled out of constitutional negotiations and demanded that the government take steps to end countrywide violence and agree to relinquish power to an interim government.

“We have not come here to gloat,” said Mandela, wearing a track suit and an ANC cap. “We are here to take South Africa along the road to peace and democracy. All South Africans, black and white, want peace, economic stability and a happy future for their children.”

Mandela, whose remarks were translated into Zulu for the crowd, added that the negotiations process will resume when De Klerk responds “in the same spirit” to the ANC’s demands. The government already has gone some way toward meeting those demands, and Mandela has said privately that negotiations could resume as early as this month.

After the rally, De Klerk emerged from the Union Buildings to say he is pleased that Mandela remains committed to negotiations. The president also said his government and ANC officials already have held several meetings to discuss their impasse and that he is optimistic that the ANC would soon agree to resume full constitutional talks.

“I look forward to the day when Mr. Mandela will once again see me in my office, as he has done often,” De Klerk said. “He needn’t speak to me from the lower part of the Union Buildings. There’s an open door here.”

The ANC staged similar marches in other major cities Wednesday, drawing tens of thousands into the streets of Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth and Pietermaritzburg.

Police said 650 ANC supporters were arrested countrywide, mostly in attempts to stage sit-ins at government buildings.

The march in Pretoria, the biggest in the ANC’s monthlong campaign of rallies and civil disobedience, resembled a victory parade, with contingent after contingent of ANC chapters marching, singing, chanting and doing the toyi-toyi, the high-stepping dance of young militants that once had police reaching for their shotguns.

“We have come to Pretoria to bring South Africa back to the people,” went one of the songs. “Mandela must take his chair now.”

One of the marchers, Junior Magongwawa, a 39-year-old machine operator from a township outside Pretoria, said changes in South Africa are long overdue.

“De Klerk is going down,” Magongwawa said. “This is the new South Africa. No more apartheid. Everybody will soon be working together.”

Hundreds of police, armed only with their service revolvers, watched the parade wind peacefully through this conservative city. More heavily armed riot units were stationed out of sight, a few blocks from the parade route. But police reported only a few minor incidents and no serious injuries.

Many Pretoria businesses, fearing looting, had shut their doors for the day. Black maids, gardeners and passersby lined the march route. And dozens of whites, some relaxing with a beer, sat on their apartment verandas, silently watching the marchers pass on the street below.

“Everyone has the right to do his thing,” shrugged Jackie van Jaarsveld, a 38-year-old computer operator who watched from the sidewalk outside her apartment building.

Meanwhile, in Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg, a commission headed by Judge Richard Goldstone on Wednesday began its inquiry into the June 17 Boipatong massacre, which triggered the ANC’s decision to break off talks.

Goldstone said his panel, which includes a judge from India, will first concentrate on allegations of police and army involvement in the massacre of more than 40 blacks in Boipatong township before attempting to identify those responsible for the attack and recommend ways of preventing a recurrence.