Trial by Fire

Confronted by growing violence among blacks and stalled political talks with the government, Nelson Mandela received another dispiriting blow last week. His wife Winnie is to be tried with seven other people for kidnapping and assaulting four young militants on Dec. 29, 1988. One of the victims, a 14- year-old antigovernment activist named James Seipei, who used the nom de guerre "Stompie Moeketsi," was found stabbed to death eight days later. The four had fled the Mandela home after a dispute with members of the so-called Mandela United Football Club, who lived there.

Although the youths were abducted by members of that club, the government was leery about charging her. Officials said privately they would not do so until they had an ironclad case. The national antiapartheid coalition did not hesitate, though. In February 1989, leaders of the United Democratic Front and the Congress of South African Trade Unions blamed Mandela for her gang's "reign of terror" and called on activists to shun her.

Since Nelson's release from prison last February, his wife has been effectively rehabilitated by his prestige. In August she was appointed head of the A.N.C.'s social-welfare department, a move that produced protests inside the organization. That same month Jerry Richardson, "coach" of the Mandela football club, was sentenced to death for Seipei's murder. During his trial, the three surviving youths testified that Winnie beat them with her fists and a whip. She was trying to force them to claim that the white Methodist minister with whom they had taken refuge had sexually abused them, they said. Winnie denies the charges. "At least I will be able to stand a proper trial," she said, "and clear my name properly."

The government must now feel certain of winning its case. But if it does, and Winnie is sentenced to prison or -- as is technically possible -- to death, that would no longer be just a complication. It could trigger enough anger to destroy the negotiations.