"MUGGER OF THE NATION"?

By Peter Hawthorne/Johannesburg

Launching the Million Woman March of African Americans in Philadelphia with her familiar clenched-fist salute, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was, as usual, center stage on her recent visit to the U.S. But back home last week, the ex-wife of South Africa's President faced a less flattering limelight. It was her turn to go before the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on human-rights violations during the apartheid era, and the testimony there further clouded the reputation of the woman once called Mother of the Nation.

Or Mugger of the Nation? That's what some South Africans have been calling her since 1991, when she was convicted of kidnapping and fined $3,200. The case against Madikizela-Mandela (she added her maiden name after the 1996 divorce from President Nelson Mandela) arose out of her involvement with a bunch of young Soweto Township toughs who called themselves the Mandela United Football Club and acted as her bodyguards. In 1988 the gang abducted four youths from a township mission house, and one of them, a 14-year-old activist nicknamed Stompie (Afrikaans for cigarette butt) Seipei, was later found murdered. The "coach" of the "football team," Jerry Richardson, was convicted of the murder.

During the course of her trial, some of the defendants and witnesses disappeared, and later some said they had perjured themselves to protect Madikizela-Mandela. From his prison cell, Richardson claimed she not only ordered Seipei's murder but also told him to kill another youngster, a girl she believed to be a police informer. Last week Katiza Cebekhulu, who said he was smuggled out of the country to prevent his giving testimony linking her to a number of Soweto murders, was one of more than 40 people called by the Truth Commission to testify to the activities of Winnie Mandela. Pointing his finger at her, the slightly built, nervous Cebekhulu declared, "I saw her kill Stompie." She shook her head, shrugged and turned away.

Most of these allegations have already been published; she has denied them all. She lost her cool once last week, outside the hall when she was asked about the possibility of facing private prosecutions for the death of Seipei and another Soweto activist. "I don't give a damn!" was her shouted reply.

With the welter of claims and counter-claims and evidence that has been contradictory and based on hearsay, it is unlikely that the Truth Commission will come to any significant conclusion. Of more concern to many South Africans is the fact that Madikizela-Mandela has been nominated to run for deputy president of the majority African National Congress when Nelson Mandela retires as party head this month (he will remain head of the government until 1999) and his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, becomes party president.

Even if she loses, Madikizela-Mandela is still a Member of Parliament and continues to embarrass the A.N.C. with attacks on the government's integrity and its failure to deliver what the masses want. The Truth Commission hearing is not a trial, but it could find her responsible for what a leading witness, Methodist Bishop Peter Storey, called "a ruthless abuse of power." Her expulsion from the A.N.C. could follow. But even then, there will be many who believe that Madikizela-Mandela's transgressions were committed in the struggle against apartheid and that she should be praised, not pilloried.

--By Peter Hawthorne/Johannesburg