The announcement was made by the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, at the second day of the conference in New York on extending the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which came into force 25 years ago and is due to expire. She sounded hoarse and looked ill but aides said she had flu.
She was sacked by her estranged husband, President Nelson Mandela, on 27 March but, seizing on legal loopholes, she sued for reinstatement. She was reinstated last Wednesday but the President sacked her again two days later, saying her appointment would be terminated yesterday.In a face-saving gesture she resigned on Monday but made clear she would continue fighting the government, saying the bungled dismissal was “irregular and unconstitutional”.Reports on Tuesday said Mrs Mandela has taken legal advice on her second sacking and was convinced that her dismissal was again legally invalid and unconstitutional.. Linksfield Park Clinic, where she is believed to be, refused to comment.

On Monday she resigned as Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology shortly before her official dismissal was to come into effect. Johannesburg (AFP) – Winnie Mandela was yesterday admitted to a private hospital here suffering from stress, sources close to her said. Johannesburg – Winnie Mandela was admitted to a private clinic here suffering from stress, according to sources close to her. The Linksfield Park Clinic, where she is believed to be,refused to comment. On Monday Mrs Mandela resigned from her position as deputy minister of arts, culture, science and technology, just hours before her official axing from the post was due to come into effect AFP.

Which leads me to the thought that the problem of race relations is perhaps a great deal more intractable in the United States than it is in South Africa.. What I will say with confidence, though, is that if a white parliamentarian in South Africa had made a similar remark in a similar spirit, the world would not have fallen on his shoulders. But he was still angry several days after the event.I hesitate to offer any interpretations of this sorry saga, not knowing enough about the history of the sensibilities involved. In contrast to the mainstream Republican view in Congress, she was opposed to a law designed to deprive unwed teenage mothers of social welfare. “You’re dealing”, her words to me were, “with something much deeper than a mere piece of paper is going to solve.” As an example she had cited the “jewels in the crown” game, of whose existence she had heard from black parents at an Aids clinic.Mr Bryant, a Democrat, did not deny the game existed and conceded grudgingly that Mrs Whitman should be commended for standing up to some of the less compassionate members of her party.

“And that word `siring’: it’s as if she’s talking about animals, people below the human level!”I put it to him that, as Mrs Whitman had observed in her apology, while the remark could be construed as racist if taken in isolation, its context suggested a person concerned with humanely addressing the problems of America’s underprivileged. First, he said, the Governor’s words had been published in a foreign newspaper and she had projected to the world an “absolutely misleading” perception, namely to ignore the fact that the phenomenon of unwed mothers was an epidemic among American teenagers not confined to African Americans. the Governor’s own rhetoric is playing to racial stereotypes, causing further divisions and perpetuating social biases.”I asked Mr Bryant on Monday if he could explain why he had been so upset. In his letter to Mrs Whitman he wrote: “A comment of this venomous character would not be unexpected from shock radio disc jockeys or hate-inspired talk-show hosts. She is a national celebrity: the pin-up of the Republican Party, the favourite to run for vice-president in the 1996 election.This was the remark that landed her in hot water: “As regards the unwed mothers, there’s a game called `jewels in the crown’ that young black males have and it’s how many children you can sire outside of wedlock.”Wayne Bryant, the black senator from New Jersey, went ballistic. She publicly apologised, which only encouraged a host of newspapers to carry the story. television stations in Philadelphia and New York picked it up, splashing copies of the article across the television screens of the north-east.For Mrs Whitman, who is in London this week visiting – among others, Baroness Thatcher – is no ordinary state governor.