Mandela is
kept. The text of the letter follows: [World Outlook received a French. version provided by the provisional secretariat of the Comité Anti- Apartheid in Paris, consequently there may be a few discrepancies with the original letter. |
“The political prisoners are kept in the worst possible conditions in the South African prisons.. For example, Nelson Mandela has been put in category D, the worst so far as privileges and rights are concerned, although the police say that he is a tcompletely disciplined prisoner.! (All prisoners of the ANC are now automatically olasaified in category D.)
"He passes twenty-three hours a day, alone, in a six by ten foot cell. He has at the most two half-hours a day for exercise, alone. He is for-= bidden. to speak with other prisoners. No reading is granted him, neither books nor newspapers, except textbooks for correspondence courses which have ‘been. approved to be brought - in.
“He -has the right ‘to receive a 30-minute visit from his wife each six months, and can write and.receive one letter each six months, He can-= not buy or receive food other than the prison rations which consist, for breakfast, of corn meal with either sugar or pea soup, without milks for dinner, corn meal with a-little meat or, alternatively, kidney. beans; in the. evening, corn meal. . a
"He sleeps on the floor on a felt pad or a rush mat. He has a stool and.a small table, a concession for his studies. Those who don't. study, sit on the floor, .
"These conditions are the same for all the other racial groups who are political prisoners -- most of them are in the Pretoria prison -except that the food is better for the other groups. It is necessary to compare Mandela with .the way he was a year ago to see the ravages caused by such conditions."
NEW YORK TIMES CONFIRMS