Monday, January 14, 2008

Who really murdered Stompie Seipei?


I SWEAR...: Mandela United Football Club "coach" and convicted
killer Jerry Richardson takes the oath before testifying at the Truth and
Reconciliation hearing in Johannesburg. Richardson is serving a life sentence
for the murder of teenage activist Stompie Seipei. (AP)



'Coach was told to kill Seipei'



JOHANNESBURG -- Stompie Seipei was killed on Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's
instructions to prevent the Mandela "crisis committee" discovering how
badly the Mandela United Football Club had assaulted four youths they had
abducted from the Soweto Methodist manse, the commission heard yesterday. Former
club "coach" Jerry Richardson testified that Mrs Madikizela-Mandela
decided to kill Stompie to cover up what had happened. The Mandela crisis
committee, made up of church, community and ANC leaders, was formed to secure
the release of four boys, including Stompie, who were abducted from Methodist
minister Paul Verryn's manse in late December 1988. "I slaughtered him (Stompie)
like a goat," Richardson said, as Stompie's mother, Joyce, left the hall in
tears. Richardson said he abducted Stompie on Mrs Madikizela-Mandela's
instructions after Mr Verryn was falsely accused of sodomising the boys.
Richardson said: "I killed Stompie under instructions of Mami (Mrs
Madikizela-Mandela)." He said he and another football club member,
"Slash", went to look for a place where they could kill Stompie. They
decided on a rocky patch of ground near a railway line in Noordgesig, Soweto.
Richardson said the plan to kill Stompie, several days after the abduction and
assault, had to be postponed because a lot of visitors, including the crisis
committee, kept coming to Mrs Madikizela-Mandela's house. Richardson said the
visitors included former South African Council of Churches' secretary-general
Frank Chikane. Richardson said Mrs Madikizela-Mandela hid him (Richardson) so
the visitors could not speak to him. "Mami was concerned the crisis
committee would discover the presence of the youth in her yard." He said
Stompie was more severely beaten than the other three youths because Mrs
Madikizela-Mandela accused him of being an impimpi (police informer). He said
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela had participated in the beating, punching the youths with
her fist. Richardson said the football club had tortured youths in
"horrible, brutal ways ... in the manner used to torture freedom fighters
(by the police)". A few days later, Richardson and Slash took Stompie to
the site in Noordgesig they had chosen. Richardson said he had to help Stompie
walk because "he was very sick and very weak". When they reached the
site, Richardson said he made Stompie lie on his back and separated a pair of
garden shears. He said he stabbed Stompie in the neck. Senior state pathologist
Dr Patricia Klepp said that during her autopsy of Stompie's body, she found two
stab marks behind his right ear and a larger stab mark on the left side of his
neck. -- DDC



The following article was published in the Daily Dispatch on Thursday,
December 4, 1997, about the Soweto slaughters which were ordered by Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela in 1989.



JOHANNESBURG -- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela ordered the killing of young
activists Lolo Sono and Tony Tshabalala who were "slaughtered like
goats" and whose bodies were buried near a mine dump in Soweto in December
1988, former Mandela United Football Club "coach" Jerry Richardson
testified yesterday. Richardson was giving evidence on the eighth day of the
hearing into the alleged reign of terror conducted by President Nelson Mandela's
former wife, Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and the now disbanded Mandela United
Football Club in Soweto during the late 1980s. Describing events leading up to
the death of the two activists, Richardson, who was convicted for the 1989
killing of teenager Stompie Seipei, said he "worked with the police".
His handler, the hearing heard, was a Sergeant Stefanus Pretorius. Sgt Pretorius
was killed along with two MK soldiers in a shootout at Richardson's home which
the MK members were using as refuge on November 9 1988. Richardson said that
after this incident he came under suspicion from other Mandela United Football
Club members of being a police spy. As a consequence he feared for his life.
However, suspicion then focused on Sono and Tshabalala who visited Richardson's
home just before the shootout, said Richardson. The two youths were apprehended
several days later and taken to Mrs Madikizela-Mandela's Diepkloof, Soweto,
home. Here they were severely beaten, with Richardson taking part. Richardson
said a decision was taken to kill the youths and dump their bodies near
Mzimhlope in Soweto. He said the young men were driven to the mine dump.
Football club members Guyboy Kubheke and another called Ninja took the youths,
who were bound by their hands and feet, into the veld. Richardson said he and
Shakes Tau followed with spades and shovels. "When we got there Guyboy was
busy killing them, slaughtering them like a goat," said Richardson.
"As soon as we finished slaughtering them, we went to Madikizela-Mandela's
house to give a report back." Richardson also claimed that Mrs Madikizela-Mandela
ordered that a young woman, Ms Kuki Zwane, should be killed for disobedience. Ms
Zwane apparently had been ordered to terminate her relationship with football
club member Sizwe Sithole, otherwise known as Butile, who was the boyfriend of
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela's daughter, Zinzi. Richardson described how he killed Ms
Zwane and dumped her body near the Orlando railway station. "I stabbed her,
slit her throat and dumped her body," he said. -- Sapa

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