the Nobel Peace Prize with African National Congress president Nelson Mandela.

ANC supporter and former prisoner of conscience Miss Nomgcobo Sangweni stressed this last night when asked what she thought of Mandela sharing the prize with South African president F.W. de Klerk.

"Few men deserve a Nobel Peace prize more than this South African man who went to prison for 27 years and still wants to see a free South Africa for whites and blacks,'' she told some 200 people who attended a forum jointly-sponsored by the local Amnesty International and Anti-Apartheid Coalition groups, at St. Paul's AME Centennial Hall.

"But as much as Mandela feels it is great to share the peace prize with de Klerk, I feel there are many South Africans both black and white who should have shared that peace prize.

"He (de Klerk) just happened to be at the right place at the right time.'' Miss Sangweni, a Zulu, noted Mandela's release did not come about through a change of heart by the South African government, but because of pressure put on the government by black and white South Africans.

She added that it was because of people like Mandela, her schoolmate the late Stephen Biko, and others who died or endured torture in prison that South Africa was moving toward democracy.

Miss Sangweni, who fled her country in 1986 after being imprisoned for no crime, said she looked forward to returning to South Africa to work on its first democratic election on April 27 and to vote for the first time.

But even with a democratic government, she does not expect changes overnight.

"South Africa is writing a new constitution,'' she said, responding to a question from the audience about the risk of biased judges. "It is being helped by legal minds all over the world.

"But it is very difficult to say what will happen in a free South Africa as far as the judicial system is concerned. Judges are all white and I agree they are too close to the system to be objective.'' Miss Sangweni also noted that the South African government, by handing out fat pension cheques to retired government officials like former president P.W.

Botha and through other means, is "depleting resources so these people can go and live comfortably while the democratic South Africa will be left with hardly any funds''.

But she stressed South Africa is encouraging those who fled because of apartheid to return home.

"South Africans are being asked to come home and send their resumes so those who are trained in special fields can teach others,'' She said. "We want to dispel the myth that there's nothing we could do on our own.'' She also said there was a sense of hope in South Africa.

And she thanked Amnesty International, including the local group, for its efforts in South Africa and all over the world.

Urging Bermudians to lend their support to the organisation that is marking its 10th anniversary in Bermuda, Miss Sangweni said: "The best celebration of any Amnesty International group would be to go out of business because there are no longer any abuses of human rights.

"But unfortunately as I talk to you tonight the prison count (in South Africa) remains high and abuses are carried out each day. So Amnesty International needs your help.''