Conversations with Myself (24 page)

10 OCTOBER 1980

73, 000 people sign petition for the release of N.M.

11 OCTOBER 1980
Prisoners’ Day
¹⁷

27 OCTOBER 1980

Documents removed without my consent by W/O Pienaar

3 NOVEMBER 1980

M-Drive in Zimbabwe: The Free-M[andela] at the University of Zimbabwe has collected 600 signatures petitioning for his release

Clifford Mashiri the organiser

28 NOVEMBER 1980

[In Afrikaans] As long as the Afrikaners think they are the super race and have a right to force solutions on others, the future will remain bleak.

Concept of Bantu Education carries with it a stigma.
¹⁸
No system however improved, will ever be accepted as long as it is a racially separate one

25 DECEMBER 1980

Zami, Zindzi and Zobuhle visit RI [Robben Island] for ±1 hr. Both dressed in light gear. Promised to pose for Ayesha [Arnold]: Commemoration in Dbn [Durban]. Nehru Award
¹⁹

Tape of Indira Gandhi’s address did not arrive

22 JANUARY 1981

Primrose oil lowers blood pressure, cholesterol level and overweight

N.Ms supporters included senior don: Prof Barbara Hardy and current affairs commentator Jonathan Dimbleby
²⁰

1 APRIL 1981

Mandela documentary: BBC producer Frank Cox, who made the TV drama documentary on editor Donald Woods escape from SA [South Africa], is planning a TV drama documentary on N.M. [Nelson Mandela] for filming in June.

Casting for white and black South African actors starts in June. The programme will run for 50 minutes and will be part of a series of 3 on the subject of human rights. The programme will be filmed on a mock-up Robben Island somewhere in Britain

3 APRIL 1981

Bishop [Desmond] Tutu speaks in Committee Room of House of Commons at culmination of Release M campaign.
²¹
Present Michael Foot,
²²
David Steel.
²³
Petition endorsed by 94 MPs, 25 peers, 30 leading churchmen including 19 bishops, and 98 professors, 500 organisations representing estimated 12,000,000

5 MAY 1981

IRA [Irish Republican Army] martyr Bobby Sands dies

10 MAY 1981

Zami and Swati ±10am: Swati bangs on glass partition shouting, ‘Open, open!’ Finally she cries and is finally removed by Mda’s sister

17 MAY 1981

Number of prisoners who are studying

30% of them do not sit for the examination

5 AUGUST 1981

Dr Ekwueme (Alex) Vice-President of Nigeria receives the freedom of Glasgow on behalf of NM from the Lord Provost Mr Michael Kelly. The scroll conferring the honour known as the Burgess Ticket will be kept safely in Govt House in Lagos. ‘When M gains his freedom in, I hope, the not too distant future, he will be able to come to Lagos to receive it.’

15 AUGUST 1981

Zami and Zobuhle: I kiss Zobuhle against partition glass and speak to her by telephone. She fusses around and makes conversation with Zami absolutely impossible. We decide she should not return the following day.

19 AUGUST 1981

Anthony Bobby Tsotsobe, 25
Johannes Shabangu, 28
David Moise
sentenced to death by Judge Theron (Charl).
²⁴
‘Long live the spirit of the toiling masses of SA, long live the spirit of international mankind, long live NM; long live Solomon Mahlangu!’
²⁵

26 SEPTEMBER 1981

Zami spends her 45th birthday with us. Reports intensive harassment of herself and family by SAP [South African Police] re Zindzi’s passport and Mabitsela’s living at home.
²⁶

Zeni and Zindzi leaving for Rio de Janeiro, USA and Madrid on 9.10.81

19 NOVEMBER 1981

[Griffiths] Mxenge murdered
²⁷

14 DECEMBER 1981

Commanding Officer informs me that Zami involved in car accident in Mt. Ayliff. Sustained serious neck, shoulder and rib injury. Also a 14 yr old Madikizela girl. Hospitalised in Kokstad. Might be transferred to Durban. Telegram of good wishes immediately dispatched.

6 JANUARY 1982

Bomb blast in Soweto and rocked the Orlando Community Hall about 9 pm, shattered windows of neighbouring houses, cracked walls: second blast in the area

28 JANUARY 1982

Zami’s banishment to Brandfort and house-arrest there renewed for another year

30 JANUARY 1982

Zami’s left hand still in plaster. She looks quite unwell. New cast put by Bloemfontein orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Shipley. Will see him on Feb. 10 and if no improvement might operate.

31 JANUARY 1982

Zami returns wearing sunglasses. Will post photos of Thembi’s wedding on Monday morning.

26 MARCH 1982

Tom Lodge: ‘Black Resistance Politics in S.A 1948–1981’

[Mandela is suddenly moved to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland on 30 March 1982]

24 APRIL 1982

Zami visits me at Pollsmoor, accompanied by Mr Allister Sparks but he is not allowed to come in.
²⁸

25 APRIL 1982

Zami returns again accompanied by A.S. She looks very well. Plans to return next month.

5 MAY 1982

Packet of Bisto [powdered gravy] given to kitchens by Adj [Adjutant] Terblanche with instruction that one teaspoon be used on Wednesdays only. First teaspoon used

12 MAY 1982

One teaspoon of Bisto used for second time

17 MAY 1982

Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (London) is to give R1800 to Zami so that she can visit Madiba. Zami was able to visit Madiba last month, thanks to the generosity of a Dorset woman, Mrs Majorie Ruck

26 JUNE 1982

Zami in fawn coat reports on death threats and attempt to bomb the combi [minibus]: accompanied by Mabitsela but he did not enter cubicle

1 AUGUST 1982

Birthday card to Ayesha [Arnold]

7 AUGUST 1982

Maki (intended visit applied for on 30th April). Maki did come for one hour and staying at Cowley House

8 AUGUST 1982

Maki for 30 minutes. Two front teeth pulled out and one on the side.

17 AUGUST 1982

[In Afrikaans, presumably from a newspaper cutting] A letter bomb has claimed the life of Ruth First: Ruth First, an official of the banned ANC [African National Congress] died in Maputo after a letter bomb exploded in her hands. The incident happened at the university’s Centre for African Studies where she worked, according to the official news agency, Angop. The other people in the vicinity included the Centre’s director Mr Aquino de Braganca, who was injured in the explosion, said a family member of his family. Apparently one of Pres. Samora Machel’s advisors said he was not seriously injured.

Books by her: 177 days, The Barrel of a Gun, a study of military rule in Africa, A Biography of Olive Schreiner, and A Study of Modern Libya [possibly
Libya: The Elusive Revolution
].

21 AUGUST 1982

King Sobhuza dies at the age of 83
²⁹

25 SEPTEMBER 1982

Zami wearing an outfit, present from Kenya’s Ngugi
³⁰

2 OCTOBER 1982

Dream of Zami and me eating from one dish… After only a few spoons I left to attend to some urgent business, hoping to return soon and continue eating out of the common dish. Alas, I was delayed for several hrs and became acutely worried over your reaction and anxiety. It was a medley of dreams. Hobdozela falling down a steep bank into a river with a member of family on his back.

2 DECEMBER 1982

Breyten Breytenbach released from Pollsmoor Prison
³¹

4 JANUARY 1983

Former British Liberal Party leader, Mr Jeremy Thorpe met Zenani while on a business trip to Swaziland.
³²
Mr Thorpe, who is promoting a plan to built low-cost houses with highly compressed grasses, discussed Zami’s house arrest and her hubby’s imprisonment.

7 JANUARY 1983

Zami raided by police in 3 hr search by 6 police vehicles in presence of Helen Suzman M.P., and Peter Soal M.P.
³³
Served with summons for allegedly breaking a banning order. They confiscated posters, books, documents and bed spread. Also photographed 6 patients attending mobile health clinic.

31 JANUARY 1983

Sowetan. 31.1.83: Security Police took her bed cover – senators plan to replace it. Powerful members of the U.S. Congress will replace the bedspread SA Security policemen seized from Mrs W.M. [Winnie Mandela] recently. The new bedspread will be presented to the wife of the ANC [African National Congress] leader as a symbol of Congressional concern over civil rights abuses in SA.

2 FEBRUARY 1983

Admitted to Woodstock Hospital

3 FEBRUARY 1983

Operation conducted on the back of head and on right-hand toe.

5 FEBRUARY 1983

Zindzi looks bright and cheerful

14 FEBRUARY 1983

W/O Van Zyl takes out stitches in head wound

15 FEBRUARY 1983

Sister Ferreira, Woodstock Hospital, takes out stitch in big toe: Dr Stein points out that report from medical laboratories indicates that there was no sign of malignancy in the toe.

21 MARCH 1983

Ancient Olympia: Jailed black SA leader, N.M, was made an honorary citizen of the Greek village

22 MARCH 1983

The Anti-apartheid Committee Movement and the UN Committee Against Apartheid yesterday published a declaration carrying more than 4 000 signatures urging the release of ANC leader, NM.