An investigation of Jerry Richardson, leader of Winnie Mandela's "football team", has unveiled a sinister character who has led a mysterious and destructive life – and has long been suspected as a police spy. Weekly Mail this week traced the life of the former "coach" of the controversial team, now on trial for murder, and found a trail of bad. relations and destruction. It emerged that Richardson, 41, formerly chairman of a Soweto street committee, had been suspected to be a police agent for some time when, after several years of unemployment, he landed a job with the Mandela Football Club.
Richardson's frequent association with police had led his street committee to send a delegation to discuss the matter with him. When they went to his house to confront him on the issue, however, they found police there and were chased away. It also emerged that police removed Richardson from the garden of his Mzimhlophe house last year before launching a grenade and gunfire attack on African National Congress guerrillas inside. He was held by police for a week afterwards, then released without being charged. Richardson and other members of the football team have been arrested and charged with the murder of Stompie Moeketsi Seipei, a teenage activist from Tumahole.
This week the ANC told the press in Harare it knew beyond doubt that state agents had infiltrated the team. The ANC said it was worried about the possibility of the state regrouping the team, once it had been ditched by Winnie Mandela, and creating a vigilante group to deal with anti-apartheid activists. Now it is apparent that Richardson's neighbours and colleagues have long had questions surrounding him and his real or imagined relationship with the South African Police.
Richardson was severely disliked by his former neighbours; his own sister told Weekly Mail he had a "wicked heart". His wife, however, could not be located this week as she left Richardson after he moved into the Orlando West home of Winnie Mandela. Richardson was born in Soweto and went to Orlando High School. He dropped out in Form Two. He, his sisters and his brother hardly knew their father. His mother died in 1969. His only brother is currently serving a long-term sentence in Diepkloof prison for a criminal offence. In the early 1960s he married his wife Virginia, a domestic servant, and they had two children, Lina and Thandi. Richardson was a soccer player, well-known as a skilful left back. But it is not known how heacquired the job as team coach or an invitation to move into the Mandela home. Richardson owned a home in Mzimhlophe and participated in the street committees of the area. He soon became chairman of his own, the Carr Street committee.
Soon after his election to this position of responsibility he was accused of abducting his girlfriend's child. The street committee sent a delegation to his house to investigate the matter.Soon after this Richardson is said to have released the young girl. Alarm was raised in the Carr Street committee when Richardson was regularly seen being dropped off by what residents believed were police cars. Residents found it strange that he had not worked for 10 years but was dropped off from work by "white people". The matter was taken up at a street committee level and discussed. A delegation was sent to the house where his wife lived in Killarney, Soweto. According to members of the street committee, they found police on the street and were puzzled. They could not tell whether the police were guarding his house or that of a community councillor who lived nearby.The police chased the delegation away.
"We (then) had meetings of the street committee which excluded Jerry," said one street committee member. "But it seems he was always informed of the discussions" and arrived unexpectedly. "We excluded him because we suspected that he could have been behind the detention of a number of chairpersons of various streets in the area. "Residents also tell of a two-hour shoot-out between the South African Police and ANC cadres at Richardson's house. Neighbours are still confused by Richardson's behaviour and his treatment by police during the shoot-out. They described the incident: "It was a hot day. He was watering his gar den and attending to his plants. A helicopter had been hovering over the area for some time.
"Police sped on to the street and approached the house. A calm-looking Richardson lifted his arms to the air, signaling surrender. "Police approached Richardson, handcuffed him and put him in one of the private vehicles. They then pro ceded to launch a grenade and gunfire attack on the house. The shoot-out was long." At the end of the afternoon's battle, two white policemen drove Richardson out of the township in a private car. He sat alone on the back seat. He returned a week later "with crutches and dark glasses". Three days later he abandoned his crutches and was seen looking fresh and healthy.
Two days after Richardson’s release Winnie Mandela and a white man who carried a briefcase visited him at the house. The gunfire and hand grenade damage was quickly repaired and on December 16last year he was able to celebrate his 41st birthday with a party in the house. Richardson told residents that he was required to report to John Voster Square police station every morning. "Jerry was cheeky and a bully," one neighbour said. The current head of the street committee said: "The people of Mzimhlophe hate Jerry." Family relations are not good. Al though the eldest of his two sisters is scheduled to visit him in jail this weekend, the young one, Dalsie, said she would not be seeing him. "He has a very wicked heart. It will be a waste of money if I go there and see him. He won't appreciate it."
- Nobody in the resistance movement is speaking any longer about the "football team" problem, probably in an attempt to cool the issue down. United Democratic Front leader Murphy Morobe and top Cosatu leaders visited the ANC in Lusaka this week to discuss the matter. On his return on Monday, Morobe said there would be no formal statement. When pressed, however, he said there had been no change in the positions of the UDF and the ANC. And, for the first time since the controversy erupted, Winnie Mandela appears to have chosen the path of silence, not talking to any of the media.
- The number of people charged with the murder of Tumahole teenage activist "Stompie" Mokhetsi Seipei rose to eight this week. Jerry Richardson, 41, David Morgan, 61, Katiza Cebekhulu, 21, Xoliswa Felathi, 35, Jabulani Kubeka, 25, and three youths between the ages of 16 and 17 have all appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. They were not asked to plead and no evidence was led. The case will be heard later in the Rand Supreme Court. – Johnny Maseko & Thandeka Qgubule.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.