FRIDAY, 4.00PM
WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela this week accused her ex-husband President Nelson Mandela of being involved in a campaign to vilify her name.
Madikizela-Mandela dropped her bombshell last Monday at a closed hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission where she was called to recount what she knows about incidents such as the murders of teen activist Stompie Seipei and Dr Abu Baker Asvat.
She told the commission she believes Mandela tried to use information obtained during the Asvat murder investigation to discredit her at their divorce proceedings. She also blamed the African National Congress and apartheid police Stratcom disinformation units for negative publicity she has received.
She also said she believes ”certain ANC leaders” are behind the truth commission’s probe into human rights abuses allegedly committed by her and her bodyguards in the Mandela United football team. She sees the investigation as part of a broader attempt to thwart her chances of becoming the ANC’s next deputy president.
Meanwhile, national police commissioner George Fivaz on Friday rejected any suggestion that he was requested by Mandela to ”dig updirt” on Madikizela-Mandela, during the couple’s divorce proceedings. Fivaz said the suggestion ”is simply a bare-faced lie and I am duty-bound to flatly reject it”. He added the allegations are an insult to himself and Mandela.
”The SAPS is not the instrument of politicians to settle personal scores and I find it offensive in the extreme that anyone could even suggest that President Mandela would go to such lengths on a personal matter. Any such request would in any case be regarded as totally irregular by the SAPS,” Fivaz said.
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