THE exhumation last week by the National Prosecuting Authority from a paupers’ grave of two bodies, thought to be those of Sibuniso Tshabalala and Lolo Sono, has brought from the shadows a matter that must come fully into the light.
In 1997 Sono’s father, Nicodemus, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) his badly beaten son had been brought to his house at gunpoint in a minibus by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and members of her Mandela United Football Club.
He never saw his son alive again. Madikizela-Mandela’s then chief bodyguard Jerry Richardson later told the TRC he had killed the two youths on instructions from Madikizela-Mandela.
While the TRC rejected this account it did not accept Madikizela- Mandela’s claim that she knew nothing about the matter. In its final report the TRC noted the youths were last seen alive at her home, that she was involved in Sono’s abduction and that she knew he was being kept on her premises. It concluded she should take responsibility for Sono and Tshabalala’s disappearance.
The matter was never pursued.
Though the police have stopped short of implicating Madikizela- Mandela in the killings of Sono and Tshabalala, they have revealed the discovery of “explosive” new evidence and say the possibility of questioning Madikizela-Mandela will be determined by the investigation.
Yesterday Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyer, Templeton Mageza, said his client was shocked at the possibility that the NPA could prosecute her and believed the deaths of Tshabalala and Sono had been handled by the TRC.
The law provides for all to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty and Madikizela-Mandela should not be convicted in public for something that has not been proven in court – or may not even get there. Nevertheless, a cloud hangs over her head. The two killings are not the only ones in which her name has come up.
She was found by the TRC to have been present at her home, and not in Brandfort as she claimed, when 14- year-old township youth Stompie Seipei, and three other youths, were savagely beaten. Stompie’s body later turned up in the veld near her home.
She was also suspected in the murder of her personal doctor, Abu-Baker Asvat, who was called to the Madikizela-Mandela home to treat the wounded Stompie. Asvat warned that unless Stompie was taken to hospital he would die. The doctor was killed a few days later.
The killer, Thulani Dlamini, told the TRC he received a pistol from Madikizela-Mandela and an offer of R20000 to do the killing.
If there is new evidence pointing to finality in any of these cases, it is the state’s duty and in the nation’s best interest to follow it up and settle the lingering doubts about Madikizela- Mandela’s place in South African history.
Resolve Winnie’s place in history
In 1997 Sono’s father, Nicodemus, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) his badly beaten son had been brought to his house at gunpoint in a minibus by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and members of her Mandela United Football Club.
He never saw his son alive again. Madikizela-Mandela’s then chief bodyguard Jerry Richardson later told the TRC he had killed the two youths on instructions from Madikizela-Mandela.
While the TRC rejected this account it did not accept Madikizela- Mandela’s claim that she knew nothing about the matter. In its final report the TRC noted the youths were last seen alive at her home, that she was involved in Sono’s abduction and that she knew he was being kept on her premises. It concluded she should take responsibility for Sono and Tshabalala’s disappearance.
The matter was never pursued.
Though the police have stopped short of implicating Madikizela- Mandela in the killings of Sono and Tshabalala, they have revealed the discovery of “explosive” new evidence and say the possibility of questioning Madikizela-Mandela will be determined by the investigation.
Yesterday Madikizela-Mandela’s lawyer, Templeton Mageza, said his client was shocked at the possibility that the NPA could prosecute her and believed the deaths of Tshabalala and Sono had been handled by the TRC.
The law provides for all to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty and Madikizela-Mandela should not be convicted in public for something that has not been proven in court – or may not even get there. Nevertheless, a cloud hangs over her head. The two killings are not the only ones in which her name has come up.
She was found by the TRC to have been present at her home, and not in Brandfort as she claimed, when 14- year-old township youth Stompie Seipei, and three other youths, were savagely beaten. Stompie’s body later turned up in the veld near her home.
She was also suspected in the murder of her personal doctor, Abu-Baker Asvat, who was called to the Madikizela-Mandela home to treat the wounded Stompie. Asvat warned that unless Stompie was taken to hospital he would die. The doctor was killed a few days later.
The killer, Thulani Dlamini, told the TRC he received a pistol from Madikizela-Mandela and an offer of R20000 to do the killing.
If there is new evidence pointing to finality in any of these cases, it is the state’s duty and in the nation’s best interest to follow it up and settle the lingering doubts about Madikizela- Mandela’s place in South African history.
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