UPDATE /A MILITANT VOICE : Winnie Mandela’s Back on Scene--to the Dismay of Many in ANC

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  When Nelson Mandela walked free from prison in February, his controversial wife, Winnie, quietly disappeared from the limelight into the role of homemaker. For several months, she seemed happy to live in her husband’s shadow, rarely uttering a public word.

But Mrs. Mandela started speaking out in the United States in June and, to the consternation of some of her husband’s supporters back home, hasn’t stopped.

Now the African National Congress has appointed the former social worker head of its new social welfare department, giving Mrs. Mandela her first official ANC platform. The appointment, which the ANC acknowledged only after word leaked out, has baffled and angered many middle-level ANC leaders and supporters.

Seen as Poor Choice

Some think Mrs. Mandela’s militancy and tendency to speak off the cuff make her a poor choice for an executive position. Others worry that the decision indicates that the ANC’s leaders are “making decisions not quite democratically,” as one insider put it.

Close associates of the Mandelas say Nelson would prefer that his wife remain behind the scenes but feels that, because of her sacrifices during his 27 years in prison, he cannot stand in her way.

And those friends say that Mrs. Mandela, 53, wants to play more of a political role because she thinks her 72-year-old husband is losing touch with the ANC youth.

“She feels she is closer to the young people than her husband,” said Fatima Meer, Mandela’s biographer and a longtime friend of Mrs. Mandela. “She feels that his willingness to negotiate with the government is not sitting well, particularly with the more militant youth. And she thinks she is putting the record right by reflecting the mood and feeling of that youth.”

Few dispute her close ties with radical young people. Mrs. Mandela’s refusal last year to disband her thuggish retinue of young bodyguards, the Mandela United soccer club, angered many Soweto community leaders and prompted anti-apartheid organizations inside the country to publicly criticize their leader’s wife. The attorney general for the Johannesburg area is still considering whether to charge her in connection with the kidnaping and death of a 14-year-old activist, Stompie Seipei, in January, 1989.

Eyewitnesses testified that Mrs. Mandela began the beating of Seipei, whom she suspected of being a police informant, in her house and at one point told him: “You are not fit to be alive.” Those witnesses said she left the room before the most severe beatings by her bodyguards began.

Mrs. Mandela says the Seipei case is the latest of many government attempts to attack her husband’s reputation. Even some of her detractors believe her bodyguards probably included police informers.

But these days the government wants to maintain a good relationship with Nelson Mandela, without whom negotiations for a peaceful future would be much more difficult. And some political analysts believe the government would have much to lose by charging Mrs. Mandela and risking her husband’s ire.

Mrs. Mandela’s public re-emergence began during her tour of the United States, where she was feted unreservedly for enduring years of police harassment, banishment and detention for her husband’s cause.

While her husband spoke optimistically about the prospects for peace and reconciliation, Mrs. Mandela told Americans she would “go back to the bush to fight the Boers (whites)” if things didn’t work out.

Then, last month, Mrs. Mandela told a gathering in Durban that the ANC’s agreement to suspend its guerrilla war “does not mean cessation of violence.” When government officials protested, the ANC quickly issued a terse correction, saying that “actual shooting will stop.”

New Job Creates Stir

Mrs. Mandela’s new ANC social welfare job created another stir.

The Child Welfare Society observed that Mrs. Mandela “has not practiced the profession for a number of years” and added that “there are people within the ANC . . . better qualified.”

Then, last week, a delegation of social workers protested to the ANC after Mrs. Mandela appeared at a funeral in Soweto in a camouflage-print jacket and hat, khaki shirt and combat boots. They thought such implied militancy was at odds with the conciliatory image required of a social worker.

The ANC tried to reassure them, saying that Mrs. Mandela’s job will be limited to helping resettle returning exiles.