PM Transcripts

FOR MEDIA 11 FEBRUARY 1989
RELEASE or NELSON MANDELA
The imminent release of Nelson Mandela gives me deep
personal pleasure and will be welcomed whole-heartedly
by all Australians.* I join in spirit with
Winnie Mandela and the rest Of Nelson Mandela's family
and friends as they cel~ ebrate this joyous occasion,
postponed for so long. I was honoured to accept
recently an invitation by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston
to join with other international leaders in a
Nelson Manidela Reception Committee, aimed at underlining
the international community's commitment to ensuring
that the opportunities presented by Nelson Mandela's
release are niot wasted.
Following on the heels of the reforms announced by State
President de Klerk In his parliamentary address of
2 February, Mandela's release is the most positive sign
the world has yet seen that the walls of the abhorrent
apartheid system may soon be breached.
The opportunity is now at last there for constructive
negotiations to begin between the South African
Government and representatives of the black population.
The goodwill provided by the release of Mandela anld the
South Af rican Government's unbanning of the ANC and
other anti-apartheid organisations provides the basis
for negotiations which clearly would otherwise have been
absent. That goodwill must now urgently be built upon, with the
aim of seeing the black majority of South Africa receive
the political rights which will enable them to
participate at last as equal citizens In a democratic
and non-racial South Africa. Australia will do whatever
it can to assist in this process.
I congratulate the South African Government for the
wisdom it has shown by making the first steps towards
remedying past and continuing injustices. I urge
State President do Klerk to continue the process with
the release of other political prisoners and the lifting
of the State of Emergency.