Johannesburg – The ANC on Monday condemned the brief detention of party stalwart Tokyo Sexwale in the United States.

“This affront on the rights and dignity of comrade Tokyo Sexwale necessitates an unconditional apology to him and the people of South Africa from the US administration,” ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.

“[We] call upon the US to remove from its terrorist profiling lists all those included because they fought against apartheid.”

The New Age reported earlier that immigration officials detained Sexwale at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.

His lawyer Leslie Makhabela said: “They alleged he posed a threat to international security.”

Sexwale and many other anti-apartheid activists had been on a list of people banned from entering several countries since the apartheid era.

They were not removed from it after the country gained democracy in 1994.

Sexwale had since returned to the country.

The international relations department said it would continue in its attempts to rectify the travel restrictions imposed on ANC members in some countries.

It said it had repeatedly raised the matter with the US.

– SAPA