Two more disappearances linked to Mrs Mandela

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 10

Two more disappearances linked to Mrs Mandela

NZPA-AFP Johannesburg The controversy surrounding Winnie Mandela, wife of jailed black leader, Nelson Mandela, continued yesterday when the police announced they were looking for two more young men allegedly abducted by her bodyguards.

Earlier yesterday the country’s leading antiapartheid movement publicly dissociated itself , from Mrs Mandela, saying it was outraged by the reign of terror wrought by the band, who call themselves the Mandela United Football Club. The police said they were looking for Lolo Sono, aged 21, and Siboniso Tshabalala, aged 19, both of Soweto, near Johannesburg. They said witnesses had alleged Mr Sono was last seen with members of the football club, who have so far this year been implicated in two murders, and possibly a third. According to the police,

Mrs Mandela was alleged to have been present when Mr Sono was taken from his home on November 13 by club members who called him a sell-out and informer. He was allegedly seen later that night with club members and showed signs of severe assault. Mr Tshabalala was last seen on November 14 when he allegedly left home to keep an appointment with members of the club, the police said. Murphy Morobe, spokesman of the United Democratic Front (U.D.F.), told a press conference earlier that Mrs Mandela had abused the

l trust and confidence she enjoyed over the years. i He said she had often acted without contacting i the movement and had often violated its spirit and ethos. The Anglican Archi bishop, Desmond Tutu, said at a press conference in Cape Town that the U.D.F/S statement on Mrs ! Mandela made yesterday a very sad day. "It is for me inexplicable that the kinds of allegations about the outrages committed by the (Mandela football) club should have been allowed to go on and on in the kind of way that they have. “I have such a high

The police said the boy, “Stompie” Mokhetsi, was murdered on January 6, but his body was only identified this week. A member of the club was found murdered at the week-end. There is also community suspicion that the club may have been responsible for the killing of a community doctor, AbuBaker Asvat, last month, three weeks after he allegedly saw Stompie Mokhetsi before the boy died. Dr Asvat was health secretary of the Azanian Peoples Organisation, a rival anti-apartheid organisation to the U.D.F.

regard for her, her family and Nelson that I would want us to try as hard as we could for a reconciliation and rehabilitation,” he added. Community leaders and residents of Soweto, Mrs Mandela’s home town, 1 have accused the club of thuggery since it was formed in late 1985. The controversy climaxed in late December when club members allegedly abducted three young men and a boy aged 14 from a Methodist Church shelter in Soweto, took them to the Mandela home and allegedly savagely assaulted them.