Street-fighter buried; scandal persists

Press, 27 February 1989, Page 12

Street-fighter buried; scandal persists

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg A child street-fighter, Stompie Seipei, has been buried but the scandal enmeshing Winnie Mandela — three of her bodyguards have been charged with killing the youth — is far from dead.

The Mandela name was heard often at the week-end funeral for Stompie Seipei, who was 14. He was buried at the shabby township of Tumahole, about 100 km south of Johannesburg.

But the Mandela the crowd referred to with

such respect was Nelson, the nationalist leader still revered after spending more than a quarter century in jail for plotting to overthrow white rule.

His wife was not mentioned except in whispered conversations among the several hundred mourners, many of them no older than Stompie SeipeL Growing resentment over the strong-arm tactics of the 30-odd bodyguards who called themselves the Mandela United Football Club erupted after the death

of the youth, who led a 1500-strong “children’s army” during black protests in 1986.

His decomposing body was found with a slit throat in a ditch in Soweto last month.

Mandela herself has not been charged, although the police have raided her Soweto home.

But anti-apartheid groups have turned against her and she is isolated in the community that once hailed her as a heroic fighter for racial equality.