Mail & Guardian reporter
Adocument stored in the South African Historical Archives at Wits University has revealed that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s former chief adviser, Katiza Cebekhulu, told his lawyer that police tried to bribe and threaten him to implicate Madikizela-Mandela in Stompie “Moeketsi” Seipei’s murder.
During a consultation with his then attorney Kathy Satchwell at Diepkloof prison on May 15 1989, Cebekhulu told her that the police offered him a suitcase of money if he told the court that Madikizela-Mandela had killed Seipei. He also told her that he was shown a knife to identify in court as the murder weapon.
Satchwell’s notes of the meeting record that she found Cebekhulu in a frightened and mentally confused state and that he did not appear willing to co-operate with the police.
Former Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigator Piers Pigou, who worked extensively on the Mandela United Football Club hearings, confirmed that he had seen the document and that comment on its implications was contained in a detailed investigation report submitted to the TRC’s head office.
Pigou said that he believed the document severely undermined the credibility of Cebekhulu’s version regarding the murder and raised serious questions about the nature of Cebekhulu’s relationship with the police, as well as the role of the Soweto police and others in their attempts to fabricate evidence against Madikizela-Mandela.
“There are many allegations made by Cebekhulu that remain untested and that regrettably in the time afforded for questioning him during the hearings, it was virtually impossible to clarify anything apart from the fact that he was an inconsistent and incoherent witness,” said Pigou.
He added that he believed the TRC investigation had not got to the bottom of many issues.