TUESDAY, 2.30PM
THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission said on Tuesday it hopes to subpoena Winnie Madikizela Mandela to testify before a closed hearing of the commission within a month.
TRC investigative unit head Dumisa Ntsebeza refused to confirm a report, in Business Day this morning, that the commission had been given a map showing the whereabouts of a mine shaft near Johannesburg where the bodies of murdered children had been thrown. Ntsebeza’s only response was a threat that heads will roll if he finds out who leaked confidential information to the media.
Business Day on Tuesday reported that Madikizela-Mandela’s former cohort, Xoliswa Falati, had given the commission the map. Falati served a two-year jail sentence for her part in the murder of teen activist Stompie Seipei, for which Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and assault.
Business Day also reported that a number of imprisoned former members of Madikizela-Mandela’s “football club”, a gang of thugs she kept under the guise of the Mandela United football team, have applied for amnesty and “they have been singing”.
Among the jailed football club members who have applied for amnesty are Charles Zwane, convicted of nine murders, and Jerry Richardson, the football team boss jailed for Seipei’s murder.
Once the subpoena is served, Madikizela-Mandela, an ANC MP and former deputy arts and culture minister, will have 21 days to prepare for the TRC’s investigative hearing. Ntsebeza said he had replied to a letter from Madikizela-Mandela’s attorneys asking for statements to the TRC that might affect their client. He had given the assurance that all information that had to be disclosed by law would be made available so that Madikizela-Mandela could prepare adequately for the investigative hearing.