Prisoners South Africa

Chants of "free the people, free the land" sparked enthusiasm among the more than 600 people marching in Los Angeles Saturday afternoon as they denounced apartheid and called for the release of imprisoned South African leader Nelson Mandela. The march, along Martin Luther King Jr.

Black South African leader Nelson Mandela, still in the first week of a grueling 14-nation tour, cut back on appointments Friday because of general weariness but insisted that he feels well. Mandela, 71, said more changes are being considered in the remainder of his six-week trip, which includes an eight-city tour of the United States and a meeting with President Bush in Washington. He is scheduled to be in Los Angeles on June 29 and 30, and the Bay Area on June 30.

The Nymphs' Inger Lorre knows how to work a crowd. Take last Saturday night at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The sold-out arena was packed with a punk-nostagic crowd waiting for the reunion appearance of the Buzzcocks, whose last new album was released eight years ago. On stage were the Nymphs, fronted by Lorre, who strutted and sashayed about the stage with a microphone in one hand and a forest-green feather boa cuddled in the other.

Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis is outraged. "Sun City (the lavish resort complex in a South African 'homeland') makes me ill . . . sick all over. When I think about it, I can't do (anything). . . . I can't even play," he declares. Pop-rock singer Daryl Hall is angry. "People (who perform in Sun City) are jerks for doing it (and) they should be called out for it," he maintains. South African black activist Winnie Mandela is determined. "We are no longer prepared to prolong our suffering.

The island in Athol Fugard's "The Island" is a prison in South Africa, a depraved place where upstart blacks are sent when their politics become too much for the white establishment. Robben Island is a pit, and through Fugard's play, we meet two men thrown into it. John is probably there for life. Winston may have a shorter sentence, if his appeal is miraculously honored. "The Island," as is customary with Fugard, is about the historical injustice of apartheid, especially its human toll.

From its studio in the cafeteria basement at Santa Monica College, KCRW tries to make foreign leaders squirm in their seats of power. Once a month, the National Public Radio affiliate broadcasts a report of international human rights abuses in a half-hour show, "Amnesty International Reports." March marks the fifth anniversary of "Reports," the brainchild of station manager Ruth Hirschman, a veteran member of Amnesty International, the London-based human-rights organization.

Calling political suppression "irrevocably a thing of the past," President Frederik W. de Klerk announced plans Thursday to scrap most of South Africa's notorious Internal Security Act, which gives police broad powers to detain and silence anti-apartheid activists. "The suppression of the right of any party to state its case democratically in an orderly manner is not acceptable to the government," De Klerk told Parliament in Cape Town.

The Reagan Administration announced Friday that Ambassador Herman W. Nickel will return to his post in South Africa until further notice, despite his request to be replaced as soon as possible. The announcement was made after Terence A.