Jerry Richardson was this week back before the TRC’s amnesty committee, but no more coherent than during his last testimony, reports Piers Pigou
Between November 1988 and February 1989, Jerry Vusimuzi Richardson and other members of the Mandela United Football Club went on a killing spree that resulted in his arrest, prosecution, conviction and 20-year sentence for the killing of Free State child activist Moeketsi Stompie Seipei.
This week, he applied for amnesty for Seipei’s murder, three other killings and one attempted murder during this period. He claimed that he had committed these crimes under instruction from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. She categorically denies the allegations.
In contrast to the media circus that descended on Mayfair two years ago for the football club hearings, only a handful of journalists turned up to see whether Richardson would add anything new to the story. Nobody really expected he would.
His antics at the last hearings did not inspire confidence that he was going to provide a coherent version this time around, and, sure enough, as soon as the cross-examination began, he completely lost the thread of what was being asked, and what he was saying.
This prompted Richardson’s attorney Tony Richards to ask the amnesty committee to postpone the matter to allow his client to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Madikizela-Mandela and her counsel objected, charging this was some sort of underhand tactic to prevent them undoing the damage done by Richardson the day before when he gave relatively coherent evidence-in-chief. Not surprisingly they felt cheated of their opportunity to tear Richardson’s version of events to pieces.
In light of Richardson’s ramblings, however, it seemed that his lawyer was simply articulating what many already thought: that Richardson was not capable of carrying on with the proceedings. Madikizela-Mandela claimed otherwise, saying he was the same man that she had known over a decade ago and was capable of proceeding.
A psychiatric evaluation undertaken in 1989 revealed Richardson to have an extremely low IQ, as well as an inexplicable slavish adoration of Madikizela-Mandela, whom he constantly referred to as “mummy”.
He was deemed fit to stand trial, and appeared to know what he was doing as he steadfastly refused to implicate her. It was at his trial in 1990 that evidence was led that Madikizela-Mandela was not even in Soweto on the night of the infamous abductions, and had no idea what was happening to Seipei.
Almost 10 years later, her version of events has not wavered. Richardson, along with several other associates of Madikizela-Mandela, say that they lied to protect her. Her version has never been officially accepted. Even the African National Congress’s position has shifted, from outright denial to saying that her actions must be understood within the context of the events of those times.
Outside of the broad brushstrokes of the picture already painted in 1997, little had been added, and if anything, new contradictions have blurred the picture further.
There are, it seems, unending contradictions in the various versions that Richardson and other witnesses have put forward. As such, his testimony would be regarded as unreliable in a court, and may well be by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty committee, if the hearings proceed.
But Richardson has established some credibility. He provided information to the police in 1995 which led to the identification of the body of Kuki Zwane, who Richardson said he killed in December 1989 and for whose murder he is also seeking amnesty.
He also provided a considerable amount of detail that was corroborated by others, or that corroborated the versions of others. This of course doesn’t make him entirely credible. But it also doesn’t mean that he is lying about everything.
As with many TRC-related matters, separating fact from fiction and truth from lies within the constraints of the process appears an impossible task
Several key witnesses and implicated persons have yet to be located and questioned by the police and intelligence community. This includes Guybon Khubeka, who was charged in the Seipei affair and skipped bail to join the ANC in exile.
Khubeka was subsequently given indemnity in November 1994 for the attempted murder of Seipei. Khubeka is also implicated by several witnesses in the abduction and beating of Lolo Sono, who along with his friend Sibusiso Tshabalala, was accused of “selling out” the cadres that died at Richardson’s house.
Sono was last seen by his parents and one other witness, badly beaten and accused of being a spy, in the custody of Madikizela-Mandela and several club members, including Khubeka.
Then there is “Slash” Mtshali, implicated in the murders of Seipei, Tshabalala and Sono, as well as several other incidents. He also joined Umkhonto weSizwe and subsequently the South African National Defence Force, where he was located and questioned by the police in 1995. There is no record of the interrogation, and he has subsequently left the army.
Jabu Sithole was also arrested and charged in the Seipei case. He also absconded before trial to join the ANC and warrants for their arrest remain valid. Sithole was located by the TRC working for airport security at Johannesburg International. He has not been questioned and the arrest warrant has not been executed.
The person in the most invidious position is Michael Seakamela, who on more than one occasion corroborated the version that Madikizela-Mandela was present when Sono was taken badly beaten to his parents’ house in November 1989.
The uncle to Zinzi Mandela’s first child, he is particularly compromised as he is clearly unhappy about testifying yet knows he is the crucial witness in a possible kidnap charge against Madikizela-Mandela.
It seems unlikely, however, that there will be either the political will or investigative resources to pursue the matter further. The desperation of the Sono family’s search for their son’s bones is not, in the greater scheme of things, regarded as a priority issue.
But spare a thought for the victims, who came again to the TRC in the hope that some more light may be shed on the events that transpired during those four months of madness.
Once again, they have gone away empty- handed. Once again the mud has been flung in Madikizela-Mandela’s direction, without proving or disproving a thing. And as for Richardson, even if the amnesty process collapses, he has served over half of his sentence and will be eligible for parole in a few years.
Piers Pigou is a researcher at the Community Agency for Social Enquiry and was a TRC investigator involved with investigations into the Mandela United Football Club