Page 3711 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 October 1990
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decline to advocate violence. I know that Amnesty has supported a review of his conditions of detention and has abhorred any use of torture in respect of his detention; but it has not, at the same time, taken him on as a prisoner of conscience.
I think that we should, at the same time, take the position in this place that change ought to be effected, if at all possible, through non-violent means. It is possible, I believe, today. It might not have been possible in 1965 when Mr Mandela was first imprisoned. I would have said then that it was very unlikely that change could have been effected without violence, but today I firmly believe that it can be. We ought to do our best to ensure that it does occur in that fashion and endorse Mr Mandela for the symbolism of his struggle in South Africa but not go to the full extent of saying that we endorse everything that he says or does, because clearly that cannot be our position on this side of the chamber any more than on the other side of the chamber.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (11.52): Mr Speaker, I would like to address, firstly, the remarks that Mr Kaine has made about this debate, particularly in relation to his allegation that I have sought to make political capital out of this motion. I would like to draw to the Assembly's attention the fact that the first I heard of this entire business was a media report stating that Mr Kaine had denied the freedom of the city to Mr Mandela and would not be offering that on Mr Mandela's visit.
Mr Kaine: It is a misrepresentation that I denied him anything.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Kaine, it may well have been a misrepresentation, but it was the first that I heard of the matter.
Mr Kaine: I think they are your words, too, not the media's.
MS FOLLETT: No, they were not my words. As I said, it was the first that I heard of the matter. Mr Speaker, I would like to make it clear that at that stage I had not even received the letter from the Luthuli Group, to which I believe Mr Kaine was responding in his remarks.
Mr Kaine: No, that is not true, either. I had not received it, either.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, as far as I am aware, Mr Kaine did make some remarks of that nature. They may not have been reported entirely accurately, but those media reports were the first indication that I had of this whole affair. I should say that at no time did Mr Kaine speak to me or any member of my party about the matter. As far as I am aware, he made that decision entirely unilaterally, and I do not criticise him for it, nor have I done so in my speech this morning.
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