Staff Photographer
Widespread grievances over the activities of the "football team" associated with Winnie Mandela came to a head at a major community meeting in Dobsonville, Soweto, last week. About 150 activists from community, civic, women's and workers' organisations at the meeting heard serious allegations of misconduct by the team.
In particular, they expressed anger over the abduction of four youths from a local church, one of whom, a 14-year-old, is still missing and was allegedly last seen in the hands of the team. It is believed that the meeting pre-empted a march by concerned members of the community and progressive organisations to confront the football team about its activities.
The meeting resolved to secure the return of the missing youth, Stompie Mokhetsi, from the football tem. It also decided that the community should no longer refer to the team as the Mandela XI. After hearing evidence of the activities of the team, it was decided that it was unfit to carry the name of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela.
It was also decided that the matter should be thoroughly discussed by "progressive organisations". The meeting distanced itself, the "progressive movement" and the name Mandela from the activities of the football team. The team has been the subject of numerous press reports and complaints by Soweto residents for some time. A high-powered crisis committee — including community and trade union leaders Cyril Ramaphosa, the Reverend Frank Chikane Sydney Mafumade, Sister Bernard Ncube and Aubrey Mokoena — was formed last October to sort out the matter.
Now the issue is being keenly debated on buses and trains in the township and rumours about the youth's disappearance have reached fever pitch.
It is understood that the level of anger over the issue brought the intervention in the last few weeks of both political prisoner Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, president of the ANC, to secure the release of the four youths.
Winnie Mandela last night declined to comment fully over the phone. However, she repeated earlier allegations that there had been sexual misconduct involving the youths at the church. It was the duty of the church to speak the truth, she said.
Asked to comment last night, Bishop Peter Storey of the Methodist Church said: "At the turn of the year, five young people who were part of a community living under the care of a Methodist minister in the church house in Orlando West were forcibly removed by a group of youths identified as belonging to 'Winnie's football club'. One of them later made his way back to us and reported that they had been assaulted and held against their will by the group.
"During our attempts to secure their release, their captors excused their conduct on the grounds that they were protecting these young people from improper conduct by our minister. Investigations by community leaders indicate that these allegations are groundless and were intended to deflect community anger away from the violent treatment meted out to the young people by their abductors."
The youths — one of whom escaped, two of whom were released after intense pressure, and one of whom is still missing — were allegedly abducted from the Orlando Methodist Church of the Reverend Paul Verryn on December 29. Verryn believes that tension between him and the team may have arisen from his membership of the crisis committee formed last year to deal with the football team.
The three-bedroomed house adjoining his church has for some time served as a refuge for youths needing special attention and protection. One youth, Maxwell Rabolou, 14, left the church, went to live with some of the members of the football team and alleged there had been sexual misconduct at the church. At Monday's community meeting, occupants of Verryn's house denied these allegations. There was evidence that the allegation had been made under duress.
In late 1988, a 35-year-old woman, Xoliswa Felati, and her 16-year-old daughter also sought sanctuary in the, church. During December, while Verryn was away, Felati seems to have clashed with the occupants of the house. She threatened to call in the football team to discipline them. The team allegedly arrived at the church and abducted four youths on December 29. They were known as Stompie, 14, Thabiso, 20, Pele, 20, and Kenny, 29.
According to sources, one of the youths, Sello, was beaten up while escaping. A fifth youth, known as Khathiza, appears to have voluntarily gone along and joined the football team. Monday's meeting heard allegations that the team had abused the youths. It was alleged that Stompie, in particular, was in a serious condition.
One of the youths Kenny, escaped on January 7. The crisis committee intervened on January 11. They went to Soweto and were able to see some of the youths later the same day. Sources say the youths said they were with the football team voluntarily, though they appeared to be scared. They had wounds on their bodies, but no explanation was given for this.
It was at this time that Nelson Mandela allegedly intervened through legal representatives and Tambo tried to sort out the matter by telephone from Lusaka. The football team released three of the youths on January 16. They said the fourth youth, Stompie, had run away earlier. The three youths were handed then into Storey's care in Johannesburg.
Last week momentum in Soweto rose to a point when enraged union members proposed a march to confront the football team and demand the return of the fourth youth. According to a leading member of the Soweto Civic Association, Monday's meeting was held to hear the evidence of the youths who had been abducted. All of them said they bad made the allegations of sexual abuse under duress.
Another youth, who said he had defected from the football team, exhibited wounds on his neck, saying he had been caught and his throat had been cut with garden shears. The meeting resolved unanimously that there was no evidence to indicate sexual abuse. In the last six months, delegation after delegation has been elected to look into alleged transgressions of human rights by the football team.
Various organisations and individuals like Nelson Mandela, Chikane and other community leaders have advocated the disbanding of the team. According to a South African Youth Congress activist, the football team has "refused to become accountable to representative youth structures in the progressive movement".
He, however, points to the State of Emergency and says state repression allowed this situation to develop. The question this raises is the level of Winnie Mandela's support for the team's activities; whether she will back them, or join those who want the team disbanded.