‘Freedom March Irreversible,’ Mandela Tells His Supporters : South Africa: Freed black leader declares that ‘factors which necessitated armed struggle still exist. . . .’ Homecoming marred by police clashes with rampaging youths.

By SCOTT KRAFT

Feb. 12, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Marking what many herald as a new era in South African politics, a beaming Nelson R. Mandela walked out of prison Sunday, hand in hand with his wife, and told tens of thousands of supporters at a rally later that “our march to freedom is irreversible.”

“I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you the people,” the 71-year-old black nationalist said, reading his 25-minute speech slowly in a strong, resonant voice that had been silenced since 1964.

“Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today, and I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands,” he added.

Mandela sounded the twin themes of conflict and negotiation, saying that “the factors which necessitated the armed struggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue.” But he added the hope that “a climate conducive to a negotiated settlement would be created soon, so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle.”

And he urged “our white compatriots to join us in the shaping of a new South Africa. The freedom movement is a political home for you, too.”

Mandela’s homecoming rally was marred by repeated police clashes with about 100 youths who smashed windows in stores near the parade grounds outside Cape Town’s City Hall. More than 100 people, many of them children and bystanders, were injured when police opened fire with shotguns containing birdshot. Police killed one young man as he was breaking into a store.

An estimated 50,000 blacks and whites had gathered on a hot Southern Hemisphere summer afternoon on the unshaded parade grounds to welcome Mandela, and as the afternoon dragged on, many were seen drinking standing water from the concrete pavement.

Police kept a low profile until youths from the rally began breaking into nearby stores, which are closed on Sundays, and stealing everything from soft drinks to shoes. Visibly nervous white officers fired on the looters, and some in the crowd tossed bottles at the police, touching off more shooting.

As the gunfire reverberated among Cape Town’s skyscrapers, the increasingly impatient crowd pressed toward the speaker’s platform on the City Hall balcony, and anti-apartheid clergyman Allan Boesak pleaded with them for nearly two hours to “please stop pushing. Let’s show some discipline.”

Mandela’s appearance was delayed 2 1/2 hours, and some in the crowd attacked white participants and journalists, stealing camera equipment and billfolds.

Organizers admitted that they had not planned for such a large crowd, which anti-apartheid lawyer Dullah Omar described as “far beyond expectations.”

“I will not blame the police” for the resulting violence, Omar added.

The trouble underscored the difficulties that the anti-apartheid movement will have in coming days in dealing with the millions of blacks and whites who want to see and hear Mandela, the country’s most respected anti-apartheid leader.

And some feared it would give the government an excuse not to meet the demands of Mandela’s African National Congress to lift the 3 1/2-year-old state of emergency, which gives police broad powers to put down unrest.

In announcing Mandela’s release, President Frederik W. de Klerk had said he would consider rescinding the emergency within weeks, if the black leader’s freedom does not lead to an upsurge of violence in the country.

Mandela’s appearance on the platform, standing arm in arm with his wife beneath the black, green and gold flag of the ANC, brought loud cheers from the crowd, which had dwindled to fewer than 20,000 as night fell.

In his first speech in a quarter century, the black nationalist whose freedom was demanded by governments worldwide thanked “the millions of my compatriots and those in every corner of the globe who have campaigned tirelessly for my release.”

President De Klerk has said he hopes that Mandela, with whom government leaders have held frequent talks in recent months, will become a facilitator for negotiations between the black majority and the white minority for a new constitution that will give blacks a say in national affairs. De Klerk said he is convinced that the ANC leader is dedicated to “peaceful solutions.”

However, Mandela, wearing a dark suit and tie with a white handkerchief in his breast pocket, repeated the ANC’s call for an end to the emergency and the release of all prisoners convicted of politically inspired violent crimes--the two basic pre-negotiation demands of anti-apartheid groups.

He said the armed struggle against apartheid, which he co-founded in 1960, must continue.

“Our resort to the armed struggle . . . was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid,” Mandela said. “The factors which necessitated the armed struggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue.”

Expressing the hope that talks can replace armed struggle, Mandela said negotiations with the government for the dismantling of apartheid, the system that segregates residential areas, schools and hospitals, “will have to meet the overwhelming demands of our people for a democratic, non-racial and unitary South Africa. There must be an end to white monopoly on political power and a fundamental restructuring of our political and economic systems to ensure that the inequalities of apartheid are addressed.”

The freed leader described De Klerk, who has lifted the ban on the ANC and instituted other sweeping reforms, as “a man of integrity who is acutely aware of the dangers of a public figure not honoring his undertakings.”

However, Mandela added, the ANC must devise its political strategy “on the harsh reality we are faced with. And this reality is that we are still suffering under the policies of the Nationalist government.”

Mandela lamented what he called the “apartheid destruction” that had occurred since his incarceration.

“The fabric of family life of millions of my people has been shattered,” he said. “Millions are homeless and unemployed. Our economy lies in ruins. And our people are embroiled in political strife.

“Our struggle has reached a decisive moment,” he said. “We call on our people to seize this moment so that the process toward democracy is rapid and uninterrupted. We have waited too long for freedom. We can wait no longer.”

Mandela, who had been serving a life prison sentence for sabotage, was the last defendant from the country’s most important political trial to go free. De Klerk freed Walter Sisulu and four other defendants last October.

In an emotional moment, Mandela closed his speech by quoting his own trial statement, saying the words “are as true today as they were then.”

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities,” he said. “It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Throughout the country, Mandela’s release is being seen as the key to a new, peaceful future in South Africa. For the thousands who gathered outside the gates of Victor Verster Prison for his release and at the rally to welcome him home, the sight of the graying leader was a sign of hope.

“He’s more gray than I thought. But he’s still got the strength to lead the people,” said W. B. de Bruin, a 31-year-old black railway worker.

Wiseman Fundani, 26, who had not been born when Mandela went to prison, said that seeing the elderly Mandela has convinced him of the urgency of the anti-apartheid struggle.

“The government must hand over to majority rule,” Fundani said. “And soon. In 10 years, Mandela may be dead already.”

Tears welled up in Beverley Rhoda’s eyes as the white 27-year-old saleswoman heard Mandela’s voice lead the rally in singing “God Bless Africa,” the unofficial anthem of the black liberation struggle.

“I never thought I’d hear Mandela leading us in that song out in the open like this,” she said, holding onto her boyfriend, Graham Esterhuizen, for support. “To hear him speak, to hear him say the things he says, just fortifies everything we’ve believed in all this time.

“I think this man can make a difference,” she added.

As Mandela was walking out of prison, raising a clenched fist in the symbol of black liberation, a South African Airways plane lifted off from the runway nearby and the white pilot came on the loudspeaker with a special message.

“We welcome you aboard South African Airways on this momentous day in South Africa’s history,” the pilot said. And he didn’t even have to mention Mandela’s name.