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WASHINGTON DC (Rediff) May 8, 2008 – The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a legislation to erase the government-imposed stigma against membership in the African National Congress of South Africa, the party of Nobel Laureate and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
The bill, authored by Congressman and California Democrat Howard Berman, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would remove any notation that would characterise the ANC and its leaders — including Mandela — as terrorists, from all US databases.
Berman said, “This long-overdue bill is the direct result of a stunning and embarrassing story for the United States.”
For decades, the ANC resisted Apartheid and advocated the rights of black South Africans–first through nonviolence and community activism, and then through the actions of its military wing.
The racist white South African government banned the ANC in 1960, and the United States denied entry to ANC members based on the group’s activities. With the end of Apartheid in 1990, the ANC grew to become a leading political party and today continues to lead South Africa in a multiracial, multiparty democracy.
Berman said, “Astonishingly, while South Africa completed its monumental political transition, the US position regarding entry for ANC’s leaders remained frozen in time. Leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Govan Mbeki–father of President Thabo Mbeki–were continually barred from entry to the US and had to apply for special waivers to gain entry.”
John Edwards blasted Dick Cheney’s voting record as a congressman where he voted against the release of Nelson Mandela, instituting a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., Head Start and more. We speak with John Nichols of The Nation magazine and author of Dick: The Man Who Is President.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
