Five long-exiled leaders of the African National Congress made an emotional return to South Africa on Friday to prepare for talks next week with the white-led government.
The five, who arrived from the group's exile headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, will join ANC Deputy President Nelson Mandela for discussions with President F.W. de Klerk's government May 2-4."As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted 27 years ago, `We are really on the way," ' said Joe Slovo, a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee. He fled South Africa in 1963.
"We who left by the back door have now entered the very front door of South Africa," said Slovo, the ANC's highest-ranking white. "It's a remarkable feeling."
In addition to Slovo, the group included the ANC's secretary-general, Alfred Nzo; head of foreign affairs, Thabo Mbeki; commander of the movement's guerrilla wing, Joe Modise; and head of the women's section, Ruth Mompati. The five, who had been in exile since the 1960s, arrived on a private charter and held a news conference.
"It is an exciting moment for all of us," said Nzo. "Regrettably, our South Africa is still a bleeding country ravaged by the apartheid system which continues to divide our people into warring clusters."
Mbeki wept as he stood beside his 80-year-old father, Govan Mbeki, an ANC veteran who spent 23 years in prison before his release in 1987.
Meanwhile, exiled ANC President Oliver Tambo, 73, quietly left Sweden on Thursday after recuperating there since Jan. 3 from a stroke he suffered late last year, officials in Stockholm said Friday. The Swedish news agency TT said Tambo wanted to return to South Africa soon, but it was unlikely he would be able to resume an active leadership role in the ANC.