Word: mandelas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...trial of Winnie Mandela was never destined to be a simple affair. It was surrounded by demonstrations and set in the context of delicate constitutional negotiations between the African National Congress and the government of President F.W. de Klerk. But last week the kidnapping-and-assault case against the wife of A.N.C. leader Nelson Mandela, for which she could face a death sentence, blossomed into a bizarre tale of fear and intrigue...
...tempestuous "Mother of the Nation" stands accused, along with several of her bodyguards, of kidnapping and savagely beating four young black men in her Soweto home on Dec. 29, 1988, because of their alleged sexual encounters with a white minister. Mrs. Mandela claims that the youths were taken to her home when she was away to protect them from the clergyman, who has since been cleared of wrongdoing by his church. She says she took no part in any assault. One of the victims, James "Stompie Moeketsi" Seipie, 14, was later found murdered in a field...
...erupted in surprise at the start of the trial when prosecutor Jan Swanepoel told Judge Stegmann that a key prosecution witness who was one of the victims, Gabriel Pelo Mekgwe, had been mysteriously "kidnapped" the night before the proceedings. Subsequently, two other victims who were expected to testify against Mandela, Barend Thabo Mono and Kenneth Kgase, refused to speak when they took the stand. Said a terrified Kgase: "I feel strongly about the obligation to give evidence, but it's my life...
...dormant A.N.C. Youth League is being revived to bring the comrades under the movement's umbrella. The league's slogan -- Fight! Produce! Learn! -- echoes the mixed signals that A.N.C. leaders are sending to the youth. Mandela has been urging them to go back to school, but the A.N.C. still employs young students in boycotts that keep them in the streets...
These militant strategies may keep youths motivated for the cause, but they do little to prepare them for a painful reality ahead. The "new South Africa," as Mandela and De Klerk both like to call it, may in many ways be as bad or worse than...