Archive

Large scale document archive

1990 Mar 5 - 1993 Oct 15
Prime Ministerial Private Office files

PREM19/4454
South Africa (Visits to the UK by Nelson Mandela)

Source: TNA, PREM19 series
Release date: 2018 Dec 28
Classification: Secret - Cab One
Page count: 243
Any docs withheld? 8

PREM19/4454 - download whole file (PDF, 51.5 MB)

Selections from this file

Showing items 1 - 13 of 13

Date Value Title
90 Apr 27 Fr Minor South Africa: Charles Powell letter to FCO ("Mr Mandela") ["she would like if anything to err on the side of generosity and invite him to a talk followed by a working lunch"] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jun 4 Mo Major South Africa: UKE Johannesburg telegram to FCO (Mandela) [Ambassador's conversation with Mandela in hospital; preparation for meeting with MT in July] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jun 16 Sa Major South Africa: Charles Powell minute for MT (call from Mandela) [Mandela seeks meeting with MT at last minute; CDP suggests a call] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jun 17 Su Key South Africa: Charles Powell record of conversation (Mandela phone call to MT) [asks her not to press colleagues at upcoming European Council to lift sanctions; MT afterwards said she was "a bit disappointed with Mandela, who seemed to have rather a closed mind"] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jun 19 Tu Major South Africa: Charles Powell record of conversation (MT-Hurd) [MT's phone conversation with Mandela; MT "repeated that she had been rather disappointed in him"] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jun 28 Th Major South Africa: UKE Pretoria telegram to FCO (Mandela) [analysis of his position, complex pressures upon him] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jun 28 Th Major South Africa: UKE Pretoria telegram to FCO & Personal for UK High Commissioner Lusaka (Mandela) ["Mandela wants a negotiated outcome"] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jun 28 Th Major South Africa: UKE Pretoria telegram to FCO ("Lusaka: personal for High Commissioner and Shipster) [analysis of current political situation] [declassified Dec 2018]
90 Jul 3 Tu Major South Africa: Charles Powell briefing for MT ("Meeting with Mr Mandela") ["the impression we want to emerge from the meeting is of some courteous straight-talking"; account also of Mandela conversation with Hurd] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jul 3 Tu Major South Africa: MT notes (remarks at lunch with Mandela?) ["All lasting solutions are grown solutions .... There is a new generation not caught up in the outdated Marxist shibboleths of the ANC"] [declassified Dcr 2018]
90 Jul 3 Tu Major South Africa: FCO record of conversation (Hurd, Mandela) [nationalisation; sanctions; armed struggle; elections; continuing contacts] [declassified Dec 2018]
90 Jul 4 We Key South Africa: Charles Powell record of conversation (MT-Mandela) ["a successful meeting with an excellent atmosphere ... he expressed his views on the main issues in conciliatory terms"] [declassified Dcr 2018]
91 Apr 18 Th Major South Africa: UKE Cape Town telegram to FCO ("South Africa: meeting with Mandela") [Mandela asked to see MT when she visited South Africa, though not all ANC would approve; asks would she see Treurnicht? right wing parties needed to be pressurised to join negotiations] [declassified Dcr 2018]