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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 13, 1995                   TAG: 9504130064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA                                LENGTH: Medium

WINNIE MANDELA REINSTATED

The flip-flop spotlights the weaknesses of a government still finding its feet a year after the fall of the apartheid regime.

Winnie Mandela was dismissed as deputy minister for arts, culture, science and technology on March 27 after she criticized the slowness of social reform, made an unauthorized trip abroad and was accused of taking bribes.

Mandela, 60, fought back with the same defiance she showed while the old regime imprisoned her husband for 27 years. She filed court papers calling her firing unfair and demanding to know the reason.

Nelson Mandela gave none. But his allies said Winnie Mandela ignored his orders not to travel to West Africa, proved divisive in the national unity government and couldn't make the transition from protest politics to government duties.

Her complaints seemed doomed in the face of a president's traditional right to fire ministers at will. But Winnie Mandela has found an unusual ally - Zulu nationalist leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Buthelezi leads the Inkatha Freedom Party, the biggest black rival to Mandela's African National Congress. He filed his own complaint that he, as home affairs minister, wasn't notified in advance of the dismissal as the constitution demands.

Already facing a struggle with Buthelezi over Zulu autonomy, Mandela appeared unwilling Wednesday to fight on a new front.

A statement from Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, acting president until Nelson Mandela returns today from a trip out of the country, described the dismissal as technically and procedurally invalid.

``The president, upon his return, will consider [Winnie Mandela's] position as deputy minister afresh,'' the statement concluded.