Wally Mbhele
GENERAL Bantu Holomisa this week blasted the African National Congress’s “witch- hunt” of its Womens’ League leader, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and its silence on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s investigation into her.
His attack followed what seems to be an increasingly futile search by the commission for a key witness, Katiza Cebekhulu, who can allegedly link Madikizela-Mandela to the deaths of four youths who disappeared from her Soweto home in 1991.
Without Cebekhulu’s evidence, the commission said it may not have “conclusive evidence” to solve the mysterious disappearance of the youths.
Their bodies, according to statements made to the commisssion, are alleged to have been buried in mineshafts around Johannesburg.
Senior ANC officials allegedly helped Cebekhulu skip the country a week before the trial in which he, Madikizela-Mandela, Xoliswa Falati and the jailed Mandela Football Club coach Jerry Richardson were co-accused in the kidnapping and murder of a teenage activist, “Stompie” Seipei.
Speaking shortly after the announcement of his political marriage with former National Party secretary general Roelf Meyer, Holomisa wasted no time in attacking the ANC for its treatment of Madikizela- Mandela. He praised her as “one of the only few remaining tried-and-tested stalwarts in the ANC”.
It was against this background, he said, that “Winnie deserved the highest reward in the ANC – either being the ANC president or its deputy”. There is a strong lobby within the Women’s League to nominate Madikizela- Mandela for the position of ANC deputy president.
He described the commission’s investigation as part of the ANC senior leadership’s “perpetual witch-hunt against Winnie. Look at the way they wanted to manipulate the Women’s League elections, they wanted to elevate Nkosazana Zuma above her. They were caught with their pants down.”
He claimed the ANC was responsible for helping Cebekhulu to skip the country, and said he was surprised that “it has now left her in the midst of jackals to eat.
“We’ve long heard that Cebekhulu was taken to exile by the ANC. Do you want to say the ANC leadership was defeating the ends of justice?”
Following the futile mission to London last week by the commission’s investigations head, Dumisa Ntsebeza, in search of Cebekhulu, it emerged from the commission that the witness’s reluctance to return to South Africa is based on fear of possible arrest.
“The problem is that if he came back, he’ll have to be arrested and charged for Stompie’s murder. He’d like to be granted amnesty or some form of indemnity if he comes back,” a commission investigator said.
Nstebeza said he did not believe no one knew Cebekhulu’s whereabouts: “Somebody does, and is not prepared to assist.” But he stressed that Madikizela-Mandela will still be subpoenaed even if Cebekhulu is not located: “The end does not begin with Cebekhulu.”
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the bodies of Lolo Sono, Siboniso Shabalala and Kuki Zwane – whom Richardson is alleged to have killed – remains a mystery. Richardson has applied for amnesty and when he testifies, at a date still to be set, he might open another can of worms.