S. African Police Stop Mandela Festival; Court Overturns Ban
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Scores of riot police stopped a music festival Sunday at the University of Cape Town to mark the 70th birthday today of jailed anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.
Shortly after the festival was halted, a sweeping police order banning birthday events was declared invalid by a Cape Town judge, who said the police had acted in bad faith.
Anti-apartheid lawyers, who had urgently challenged the ban, said the decision could allow some celebrations today.
The walls of the mainly white university’s Jameson Hall were decorated with huge posters of Mandela and placards with slogans such as “Your Freedom Is Our Freedom.” The festival crowd chanted “God Bless Africa” in Zulu and released balloons carrying the colors of the outlawed African National Congress as they peacefully left the hall.
The campus hall is a few miles away from Pollsmoor Prison, where Mandela is serving a life sentence for sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government.
Sunday’s concert was the only known public celebration in South Africa of the jailed black nationalist leader’s birthday.
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