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Former chief bodyguard: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela ordered killings
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Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1997 The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (December 3, 1997 06:59 a.m. EST
http://www.nando.net) -- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela ordered the killings
of suspected police informers in the late 1980s, her former chief
bodgyguard testified Wednesday before a commission investigating
apartheid-era political crimes.
Convicted murderer Jerry Richardson said his hands were "full of blood"
from carrying out orders from President Nelson Mandela's ex-wife to kill
impipis, an African word for a police informer.
"If they labeled you as an impipi, there was no turning back. You would
just have to kill the person," Richardson told the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
When asked who issued the orders for such killings, he responded,
"Mami," his nickname for Madikizela-Mandela, known at the time as the
"mother of the nation."
The Truth Commission is investigating 18 human rights abuses --
including murder and torture -- allegedly committed by
Madikizela-Mandela's gang, known as the Mandela United Football Club.
The commission lacks the power to press criminal charges, but it can
turn over evidence to police for investigation.
Wednesday's session was the eighth day of public hearings concerning
Madikizela-Mandela, 63. It was possible that she would testify later
Wednesday.
She has long denied the accusations against her and the football club
and requested the public hearings to clear up the charges, which
allegedly happened in the black township of Soweto during the late
1980s.
At the time, she was married to Mandela, then an imprisoned activist.
Mandela was released in 1990. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced
last year, after which Madikizela-Mandela added her maiden name to her
married name. None of the accusations against her concern him.
In his written statement to the commission, Richardson described how
Madikizela-Mandela ordered an associate to "dump" two enemies, which
Richardson said was the euphemism for killing them.
Richardson is serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of 14-year-old
Stompie Seipei, who was accused of being a police informer. On Monday,
Richardson carried an embroidered cloth he made in prison that said
"Jerry v/s (versus) Winnie."
Madikizela-Mandela was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping Seipei and three
other young men, who were beaten at her house by members of the football
club. Seipei later was found dead.
Initially sentenced to six years in jail, Madikizela-Mandela eventually
paid a $3,200 fine on appeal.
Two convicted murderers have said she offered to pay them $8,000 to
murder a township doctor believed to have examined Seipei before the
youth died.
An African National Congress activist said the football club burned her
house in an attack that killed her niece. And former members of the
football club described routine beatings of people who allegedly defied
Madikizela-Mandela.
A former apartheid government agent testified last week that
Madikizela-Mandela was monitored constantly by informers, telephone taps
and bugging devices, but the government was reluctant to arrest her for
any alleged crimes for fear of causing political instability, such as a
backlash in the black community.
Madikizela-Mandela wants to run later this month for deputy president of
the governing ANC, a position that could make her deputy president of
the country after the next national election in 1999.
The mainstream ANC leadership, including her ex-husband, oppose her
nomination, and the ANC Women's League she heads said Tuesday it would
reconsider its support for her.
By TOM COHEN, Associated Press Writer
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