European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 26, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday May 26. 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Maureen Sullivan anti apartheid forces dropping Winnie Mandela when Nelson Mandela heard the guilty verdict Quot delivered against his wife Winnie he rushed to her Side in the packed courtroom kissed her and hugged it her and asked a my Darling How arc you a she. Smiled but he looked sick As they waded through the crowds outside the courthouse in Johannesburg. The next Day May 14, when the judge sentenced Winnie Mandela to six years in prison for her part in the december 1988 kidnapping and assault of four youths at her Soweto Home her husband was 800 Miles away on a speaking tour. If Nelson Mandela wanted to go on the record As saying he knows that his role As the face of the Black majority in South Africa is More important than one person even if she is his Long suffering wife he could not have made a clearer statement. As archbishop Desmond Tutu speaking for a wide Swath of South africans said a the movement is greater than any one single individual. A but negotiations with the White government to end apartheid Are still in a fragile embryonic stage. For All the myths surrounding the strength of the african National Congress a the primary Black civil rights organization a Mandela actually rides Herd on an extremely Loose coalition that ranges from trigger Happy Black kids to upscale White afrikaners proud to be called socialist., technically Mandela is Only the Ancus Deputy pics i Crit but the reality is that he is its glue and anything that rocks him rocks the movement. Indeed no ranking members of the Anc were present when the judge pronounced sentence on Winnie and her two co defendants. What a contrast to the Early Days of the trial in february when party leaders made sure to be seen showing Solidarity with the woman who a been called the a Mother of the  but As the witnesses told stories of Winnie dancing and singing while she beat them and experts testified about the blood on the Walls of her House the supporters peeled away. A Graffiti St called her the a mugger of the  a year ago As new York feted the mandelas with a ticker tape Parade  South africans thought Winnie would be charged. Then they were sure the trial would never go ahead witnesses disappeared and so did four co defendants. When it did they were certain she would neither be convicted nor sentenced. As it All came to pass the Anc Felt stronger in its conviction that it was of to drop her. It is not surprising the Anc has distanced itself from Winnie during the trial. She has been controversial for years. She surrounded herself with thuggish bodyguards masquerading As a soccer team. When her House was burned Down in 1988, the american Media George will a me re Imp Koument of nel50n Mandela was Quick to Call it a government attack or the work of vandals. But reports say Soweto residents knew that local kids did it in revenge for the rape of a High school girl by one of the bodyguards. When the word first leaked out about the murder of Tompie Moe Ketsi Weipei the 14-year-old activist who was among the four Kidnap victims the Anc leaders not in prison or in exile condemned her role. It was a rare Public display of hostility against one of their own. At one Point it has been said they went to the Robben Island prison to plead with Nelson Mandela to divorce her. He would not hear of it. And those men found themselves stripped of Power upon Mandela a release. Now the cognoscenti say done to you worry Winnie wont be locked up. But it is conceivable that she could serve some time in jail. And though Mandela has said that the Case has a no direct relevance to the negotiation process a its hard to believe that lie will blithely Send his wife Oil to prison with a kiss on the Cheek and then go about the business of negotiating a new Constitution. That has to Hurt the 72-year-old�?Ts ability to function As the primary representative of the Anc and Black South africans in general. He blames himself for not being there for her during his 27 years of imprisonment Anil she in turn dotes on him and wields considerable influence Over him. He is also notoriously protective of her with a Blind spot that makes some Anc members slitting mad. For better or worse South african president . De Klerk stands for the White minority and Mandela Speaks for the Black majority. Neither has an obvious heir apparent to slip into the role of Lead negotiator. Forget the name calling and  must keep each other Strong to keep the Reform process alive. Los Angelos Timos Washington Post nows Sonvico. A new York a a lesson in faltering preeminence new York a this City whose serv ices to the nation include the a Cultura. Tion of millions of immigrants and the marshalling of capitalism a financial strength is now performing a melancholy service. It is providing a timely lesson in the perishable nature of preeminence. The failure of self government is sad anywhere. It is stunning Here in this republics emblematic City. The word a a failure is not hyperbolic. Implosion is accelerating. The social collapse is reinforcing itself. The City a $28.7 billion budget is $3.5 billion in debt and whatever the City government does will make matters worse. Cutting services will hasten the flight of All those Able to flee. Increasing taxes will do the same. In just three years 100,000 jobs have vanished. Within memory this was a factory town its Prosperity produced by Bakers Brewers textile workers and shipbuilders. But the City a advantages a it was a Railhead with cheap Power and skilled labor a vanished. Railroads matter less now. Many skilled labourers have moved to nicer places and manufacturers have found it cheaper to hire South carolinians a or South koreans. The City a electricity is the nations costliest partly because of heavy taxes imposed to finance social services that have become More generous As the City a tax base has contracted. New York is an extreme example of. An epochal change the traditional functions of Central cities Are being dispersed. Central cities no longer Are the nations vital manufacturing centers or wholesale and retail marketplaces or the preferred residences of the Middle class. America is becoming the first developed nation in w hich Central cities a cities As traditionally understood a Are important primarily As problems. New Yorkus 1975 Brush with bankruptcy occurred before the drug problem explode de crack babies alone will Cost new York $2 billion in this decade and before aids arrived the City a caseload will Cost $500 million a year by1994. After. 1975, the City resumed its profligacy. A since 1983, 50,000 people have been added to the City a bloated payroll As City spending has run 35 percent ahead of inflation new York has 575 employees per 10,000 residents. Chicago makes do with 146. New Yorkus education system has a High per student spending level and wretched results All presided Over by More education bureaucrats than exist in Western Europe. In five dizzying Days last october mayor David Dinkins awarded teachers a 5.5 percent raise thereby inciting other Public employees he promised to hire 6,000 More police and he said 15,000 layoffs of City workers might be needed to avoid calamity. Spending commitments Rose $800 million. The layoffs have not occurred. Dinkins now a proposes to save Money by turning off one in four Street lights. The streets already unsafe and unsanitary Are going to become worse. The sanitation departments budget $650 million is almost double Hartford a entire municipal budget. It. Is going to be Cut. More and Mure abandoned cars and dumped sofas will squat at curbs. Rats will proliferate so will diseases. Trash 17,000 tons of garbage a Day is a renewable resource. Seventy percent of the City s 2,027 Bridges can no longer Bear the loads for which they were designed. Renovating just the four East. River Bridges will Cost at least $1 billion. City spending on the crumbling infrastructure is 45 percent higher than the combined capital budgets of Houston Chicago Philadelphia and los Angeles which have 30 percent More people. New York is borrowing to spend and taxing to service debt. To govern is to choose. The fundamental act of governance is budgeting choosing How much and on what to spend. The City is on the Brink of. Forfeiting a substantial portion of its budget ing sovereignty to a state Agency. Dinkins is appalled a we give up on the dreams we hold so dear effectively permitting others we do not elect a individuals who arc not accountable to us a to do our dreaming for  Dinkins is dreaming if he thinks he has an inalienable right to go on dreaming. He is dreaming if he thinks the crisis produced by a a accountable people like him will permit More of the dreaming that has produced this crisis. Lie is dreaming if he thinks that the crisis will be alleviated by his a dream of subventions from people not elected by or accountable to new. Yorkers a Federal taxpayers. The Federal government elected and accountable and All that would be in far worse fiscal condition than this City it the Federal government could not print  forty percent of americans population is descended from immigrants who passed through the port of new York. Today those descendants and All other americans Are watching this City with the fascination of spectators at a train wreck. They do not realize that they Are passengers on a similar train on a similar track just a  Miles Back. Washington Post writers group