African statesman and staff -- short stay (7)
I believe the answer is:
mandela
'african statesman' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'staff short stay' is the wordplay.
'staff' becomes 'man' (manning is a kind of staffing).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'stay' becomes 'delay' ('delay' can be a synonym of 'stay').
'delay' with its last letter removed is 'dela'.
'man'+'dela'='MANDELA'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for mandela that I've seen before include "Former prisoner" , "Former president of South Africa" , "South African political hero" , "South African president, 1994-99" , "Nelson lengthily detained" .)