
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994                   TAG: 9404280225
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Newsday Note: lede
DATELINE: INANDA, SOUTH AFRICA                                 LENGTH: Medium

SOUTH AFRICANS SAVOR 'UNFORGETTABLE' DAY

With the drop of a ballot in a brown metal box, Nelson Mandela Wednesday signaled the formal end of the world's last racial oligarchy, voting for the first time with millions of South Africa's blacks to achieve political equality and end white minority rule.

``It's the realization of our hopes and dreams, and it is an unforgettable moment,'' the 75-year-old patriarch of the black liberation movement said as he achieved his lifelong ambition - one for which he spent 27 years in jail - at 7:09 a.m. on a hilltop polling station.

The moment was punctuated by the latest in a series of terrorist bombing attacks widely attributed to pro-apartheid whites. Shortly after Mandela voted, a bomb went off at Johannesburg international airport, injuring 18 people. The figure brought bombing casualties to about 200 - including 23 dead - since a blast in downtown Johannesburg Sunday killed nine people and injured 100. Police announced Wednesday the arrest of 31 white extremists, including two police officers accused of masterminding the terror campaign.

Millions of voters across the country shrugged off the violent interlude, overwhelming polling stations and waiting hours in lines that were five miles long in some areas. Election organizers said an ``abnormally high turnout'' had caused widespread shortages of voting materials, and said they were considering an extension of the voting deadline beyond today if the situation did not improve.

President Frederik W. de Klerk, who called the election that will almost certainly see Mandela emerge the winner, said after casting his ballot in Pretoria, ``I am very confident that this country is now going to fulfill its full promise.''

In the confusion that marked the second day of voting in many parts of the country, thousands of ballots did not show Zulu nationalist leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his mainly Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party, who entered the election at the last minute. The glitches caused Buthelezi, who had argued that elections were premature in the first place, to threaten to withdraw altogether. The Zulu chief cast his ballot Wednesday before he indicated he was considering abandoning the process once again.

Johann Kriegler, a human rights lawyer charged with organizing the elections, said he had reassured Buthelezi the problems would be sorted out by the time polls open today.

by CNB